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The last time the Kansas State Wildcats lost at Bramlage to the nation’s number one team, Jim Wooldridge was stalking the sideline.
Today, the Baylor Bears (16-1, 4-1) ended that string by posting a 77-68 victory over the 25th-ranked Wildcats (13-4, 2-3). The key moment was when Bruce Weber called a timeout immediately following a Xavier Sneed three-pointer which gave K-State its last lead of the game with exactly ten minutes to go. Baylor immediately responded with an 8-0 run, and for the most part held that lead the rest of the way.
The game started in weird fashion, neither team able to put together any offense. The weirdness continued in the second half, as Wesley Iwundu decided to start channeling the spirit of Angel Rodriguez and Dean Wade withdrew into a tentative shell.
To illustrate just how weird the first eight minutes were, Baylor’s first ten possessions had nine different results:
- K-State rebound
- 2 points
- shot clock violation
- carry
- traveling
- 3-pointer
- shooting foul on Iwundu, Motley makes one of two free throws
- ball thrown out of bounds
- 2 points
- offensive foul
K-State only trailed by a point at halftime, and stuck close through the first 10 minutes of the second half before the bizarre timeout decision.
D.J. Johnson led the Wildcats with 20 points and three blocked shots, but uncharacteristically only added four rebounds. Barry Brown, Isaiah Maurice, and Iwundu (who added six assists) led the Wildcats with five boards each. Brown had 13 points, Sneed 12, and Kamau Stokes 10. Stokes also had five dishes.
K-State did successfully limit Johnathan Motley, who only scored 7 points and fouled out with almost five minutes left to play. Motley did retrieve nine rebounds, however. Despite spending half of the first half on the bench himself, also due to foul trouble, Manu Lecomte did most of the damage for the Bears, pouring in 26 points in only 28 minutes. Ishmail Wainwright and Al Freeman added 15 each, and Jo Lual-Acuil had 12 boards for Baylor.
Next up, K-State visits Stillwater on Wednesday to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys — their first meeting with Brad Underwood.