College Basketball

Kansas State Comeback Falls Short at Iowa State

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:52 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Stan Unruh/FanSided via Jug of Snyder

The Kansas State Wildcats struggled on the road in the first half Tuesday night in Ames. Despite a great comeback the Wildcats lost 70-65.

Bruce Weber’s team made a dramatic comeback but let Iowa State steal what would have been a great victory.

Winning on the road is critical to success in college basketball and Hilton Coliseum is a difficult place to play.

The Wildcats overcame a 20-point deficit to take a lead 58-57 on a Barry Brown layup with five minutes to play. The Cyclones were able to steal the victory with timely foul shooting in the final minutes.

Kansas State forced a turnover on Iowa State’s first possession and Barry Brown turned it into points for the Wildcats. After forcing 23 turnovers against West Virginia, I thought the Wildcats had picked up right where they left off on the weekend.

I was wrong.

Kansas State was a little lackadaisical on defense early and the ‘Clones were hitting everything they shot.

Kansas State gave up 9 three pointers in the first half.

Iowa State shot 60% from the floor in the first half. Matt Thomas couldn’t miss beyond the arc. Kansas State shot just 36% in the half.

It wasn’t just Thomas. Iowa State also outscored Kansas State in the paint 10-6 in the first half.

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Despite winning the overall rebounding battle 37-33, the Wildcats had only one offensive rebound in the first half. Probably because the ‘Cats were hustling back on defense in an attempt to slow Iowa State in transition.

Kansas State was down 43-26 at the break, their biggest halftime deficit of the year. I thought they could make a comeback and they did.

Iowa State shooting cooled and the Wildcats pulled to within 6 points with just over 8 minutes left in the game. They cut the lead to 53-50 on a 3 by Xavier Sneed with just over 6:30 to play.

Brown’s steal and runout with 5 min. left gave the ‘Cats a one point lead. But it didn’t last long. Just 53 seconds.

The Wildcats made the comeback without Dean Wade. I hope he is healthy. Wade was held to just 2 points in the game.

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Kamau Stokes also seemed to injure his leg late in Tuesday’s game. It appeared to be the opposite leg he injured a week ago.

With the loss, the ‘Cats fall back to .500 in the conference race and now will travel to Tennessee for the Big 12- SEC Challenge.

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