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K-State built a double-digit first half lead and held on throughout a bumpy second half to take a five-point win over Utah State. Senior Jacob Pullen led the Wildcats with 22 points, and now stands just 22 points away from breaking Mike Evans' record as K-State's all-time scoring leader.
The team Pullen draws to break that record will not make scoring 22 points an easy task, however. On Saturday, the Wisconsin Badgers await in Tucson for a 7:40 CDT tipoff. The Badgers give up only 58.3 points per game on average, and play at the slowest pace in all of college basketball at only 57.6 possessions per game.
For the third straight year, K-State has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In the first year of that streak, the Wildcats ran square into the Badgers in the second round of the dance, and the season promptly came to an end. Let's hope for a different result this time around.