The Kansas State men’s basketball team fell one play short against TCU and walked away from Schollmaier Arena with a painful 63-62 loss on Saturday.
K-State played well enough to beat the Horned Frogs, and stay on top the Big 12 standings in the process, but the Wildcats couldn’t close out the game despite leading by six points with 3 minutes, 14 seconds remaining.
The Horned Frogs scored the final seven points of the game and survived a late push from the Wildcats. Both Dug McDaniel and Coleman Hawkins had opportunities to win the game in the final seconds, but they were unable to convert.
Perhaps that was to be expected after K-State failed to score down the stretch of this game.
K-State (7-6, 1-1 Big 12) dropped its first game in Big 12 play while TCU (7-6, 1-1) won its first game of the conference season.
The Wildcats will next be in action at Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Saturday’s action:
K-State missed an opportunity to start hot in Big 12 play
This loss will feel more painful than most for Jerome Tang and his team because of everything that was at stake for the Wildcats.
A win would have allowed them to stay on top of the Big 12 standings with a game next against struggling Oklahoma State. The Wildcats were staring at a golden opportunity to start 3-0 in the league, which would have erased much of their early struggles.
Things are no longer looking quite so rosy for K-State after this loss.
It suddenly needs a road win against Oklahoma State to move back above .500 in conference play. That won’t be easy when you consider that K-State has lost 11 straight road games.
Kansas State attempted too many 3-pointers
Well, that isn’t entirely accurate.
K-State basketball players not named Brendan Hausen attempted too many 3-pointers in this game, especially during the first half.
Hausen made 3 of 7 shots from beyond the arc and he helped the Wildcats with an important 10 points. But his hot shooting didn’t rub off onto his teammates.
Everyone else on the K-State basketball roster combined to make 3 of 23 shots from distance.
The contrast was most notable in the first half when Hausen went 3 of 5 from 3-point range and his teammates combined to miss all 17 of their outside looks.
K-State wisely altered its strategy in the second half and spent more time trying to score around the basket.
David N’Guessan was busy on the glass
This was a career game for David N’Guessan when it came to rebounding.
The K-State senior was all over the glass and finished with a personal-best 17 rebounds.
He grabbed 14 of those rebounds in the first half.
N’Guessan also added 10 points, but he missed two important free throws that prevented him from lifting K-State to victory on an otherwise strong game from him.
Macaleab Rich provided a spark for K-State off the bench
It was impossible to miss Macaleab Rich when he entered the game for a brief stretch of the second half.
He was the one scoring all of K-State’s points.
The sophomore wing came off the bench to score eight points in 11 minutes of action for the Wildcats. As always, he was at his best around the basket.
Rich made all four of his attempts. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of defender is in his way, Rich always seems to finish when he gets the ball in the pain