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The second semifinal game of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational was special, but not special enough for the Kansas State Wildcats. Sure, Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes had the best scoring games of their careers, but it’s hard to overcome a 44-9 free throw disparity. The Wildcats experienced defeat for the first time in 2017, and it didn’t taste good.
But, the show must go on. Tonight, the Wildcats look to salvage a positive end to their Las Vegas trip with a consolation show-down with the George Washington Colonials who lost by 19 to Xavier, 83-64, in their semifinal game yesterday afternoon.
That 19 point loss wasn’t the worst of the young season for the Colonials, as they fell to Florida State by 20 a few weeks ago. GW is currently sitting at 2-3 on the season, and their two wins are against Howard and Hampton, both at home. They’ve lost their last two, with a home loss to Rider earlier this week before heading out to Las Vegas.
The Wildcats will look to recover as a team, but several players also need to recover from sub-par or foul-shortened performances against Arizona State. Dean Wade had a paltry five points, and reverted back to “Bad Dean Wade” form for much of the game. Makol Mawien, who fouled out in only 14 minutes of game action, and Mawdo Sallah both had sub-par games from the 5. And Xavier Sneed, who actually had a good game otherwise, was only able to play 22 minutes before also sitting with five fouls.
This is a game the Cats should win easily, but they will need to re-focus after the tough end to the game yesterday.
The Cats play at 7pm CT and will be up on FS1 with Rich Waltz (play-by-play) and Jim Jackson (analyst). You can find full details over in our How to Watch post.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
Kansas State (4-1)
G: #3 Kamau Stokes
G: #5 Barry Brown Jr.
G: #20 Xavier Sneed
F: #32 Dean Wade
F: #14 Makol Mawien
George Washington (2-3)
G: #1 Terry Nolan Jr.
G: #3 Jair Bolden
G: #12 Yuta Watanabe
F: #10 Patrick Steeves
F: #11 Arnaldo Toro