Kansas State Wildcats
Wade stars as K-State beats Texas 65-62 in conference opener
Kansas State Wildcats

Wade stars as K-State beats Texas 65-62 in conference opener

Published Dec. 31, 2016 1:18 a.m. ET

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- In last season's contest against Texas, Dean Wade had a chance to win the game against Texas but came up short. This time, he left no doubt.

Dean Wade scored 18 points on Friday night to help Kansas State hold off Texas 65-62 in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

"I like Dean Wade a lot," Texas head coach Shaka Smart said. "I really liked him last year as a freshman and I said last year that this guy was going to be really good because coaches here do a really good job of developing guys and he is obviously putting in the work."

Wade was 7 for 10 from the field, including two threes. Wesley Iwundu and Kamau Stokes finished with 16 points each and Stokes helped out with nine assists.

At the end of the night, the talk was about Wade and his hot shooting.

"We told him at halftime to shoot the ball," Stokes said. "He is wide open and we do not want him to pass up shots when Dean is making shots, which opens everything up for us."

Kansas State (12-1) used a 15-0 first-half run to lead 19-11. Texas (6-7) missed 11 straight field-goal attempts during that stretch and missed another two shots from the field after Shaquille Cleare's free throws ended the run at the 8:25 mark.

"I know there was a stretch of seven minutes or so where they did not score," Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber said following the game. "I do not know if it was the first or second half, we had two good stretches. They stayed at 11 for quite a while, so our defense did a good job.

Meanwhile for the Texas Longhorns, that stretch presented a much different story.

"They went on a run and we were just trying to respond," guard Kerwin Roach said. "We had a lot of balls go in and out, and they were denying our offense and that was messing up the timing, too, which hurt us."

Texas made a final run late in the second half as they shrunk an 11-point margin down to 63-60 with seven seconds left, but Stokes made both free throws to push the lead back to five and that iced it for the Wildcats.

Jarrett Allen scored 14 for Texas on 6-for-8 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds.



BIG PICTURE

Texas: The Longhorns committed double digit turnovers for the 11th time in 13 games this season and extended their streak to four straight games.

Kansas State: The Wildcats notched their first win in a conference opener since defeating Oklahoma State in 2014.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

The Kansas State bench provided zero points in the victory against Texas. Four Wildcats came off the bench and collected four rebounds and one assist but no points.

FRESHMAN STANDOUT

Andrew Jones finished with seven points on 3-for-5 shooting but struggled to hold onto the basketball as he tied a team high with four turnovers.

QUICK COMPARE

Despite losing on the scoreboard, Texas outrebounded Kansas State 36-29 on the night.

UP NEXT

Texas: The Longhorns host Oklahoma State on Wednesday.

Kansas State: The Wildcats visit in-state rival and No. 3-ranked Kansas on Tuesday.

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