The Kansas State Wildcats scored 71 points from their starting guard to beat Utah 81-78 on Tuesday night at Bramlage Arena.
With Abdi Bashir Jr. and Kamari McGriff both missing the game due to injuries, the Wildcats (10-9, 1-5 Big 12) had to rely on P.J. Hagerty, David Castillo and Nate Johnson to shoulder the scoring load. As it turned out, their effort, combined with 10 points from their supporters, was barely enough to defeat the Utes (9-10, 1-5).
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Castillo made his best impression on Abdi early on, as the Cats made 11 of their first 13 shots, 5 of 7 from 3-point range, and finished with 17 points in the half. Johnson joined the game early on, shooting 3 of 4 from 3-point range in the first quarter and scoring 15 points. They ended the game with 20 and 17 points respectively.
In the second half, PJ started doing PJ things, setting up defenders and allowing short jumpers and floaters to fall. He scored 28 of his game-high 34 points in the second half. Aside from Hagerty, Castillo and Johnson, the only player to score after halftime was Taj Manning, who caught a nice high-low pass from Johnson for an easy layup.
The Cats shot 31-62 (50%) from the field, including 12-23 (52.2%) from beyond the arc. They committed just 10 turnovers and scored a whopping 1.209 points per possession.
Even though Kansas State led by as many as 10 points in the first half, the Wildcats were never able to bury the Utes because (stop me if you’ve heard this before), they gave up too many easy shots and second-chance points. Utah State used the defense to switch and help in the paint for many layups and post-ups. They scored 40 points in the paint.
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The Jazz missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, shooting just shy of 50%, and ended 32-65. Their outside record was just 8-23 (34.8%), but they held on by winning second chances 12-6 and leading 14-8 off turnovers.
The Wildcats could neither stop nor slow down Utah Jazz player Terrence Brown, who scored 33 points in 32 minutes of playing time. The other two Utes had 15 each.
P.J. Haggerty led K-State in rebounding for the second consecutive night with eight rebounds. As a team, the Cats outrebounded the ball 34-29.
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After a great game in Stillwater on Saturday, it was nice to win a late game. It would be even better to win a game without any effort. As if we have the luxury of being picky.
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Calls for improvement on defense are futile when things have come to this. Let’s all hope K-State can give up at least 80 points to all of its remaining opponents and see how many they can hold to 79 or less. Black humor or realism? You be the judge.
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Which cosmic curmudgeon have we offended? And how was it offended? As if this season wasn’t disappointing enough, Bashir is out for at least a month (source is that he underwent surgery for a stress fracture in his foot and will miss 4-6 weeks). We don’t know the extent of McGriff’s injury, but he has been the lone anchor in the paint, and the lack of scoring from anyone other than P.J., David, or Nate and the lack of veteran size on defense will make the task of winning more conference wins especially difficult.
Next:
No. 19 Kansas will visit on Saturday at 7:00. The Jayhawks are coming off easy wins over No. 2 Iowa State and Baylor. They’re currently playing a close game in Colorado, a game with ridiculous conference adjustments and televised obligations that should be revealed at 10:00 PM Central Time. But remember: we care about our “student-athletes.”
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Coach Tang has produced some unexpected magic for KU at Bramlage during his tenure. The elves need a break from this.