P.J. Haggerty had a double-double with 23 points and 11 assists as Kansas State defeated a pesky Bellarmine squad 98-71 Saturday night in Manhattan, Kan.

Bellarmine outscored K-State for much of the second half before the Wildcats went on a 17-4 run to close the game.

David Castillo had a career-high 19 points for Kansas State (2-0). Khamari McGriff scored 16 points, while Abdi Bashir Jr. added 15. The Wildcats were 14-of-23 from 3-point range (60.9%).

Bellarmine (0-2) also had four players in double figures, led by Michael Wilson Jr. with 19 points. Jack Karasinski had 18 points, while Brian Waddell added 11 and Jacob Wassler had 10. The Knights shot just 20% (4-of-20) from long range.

Bellarmine kept the game close early in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 17-13 in the first five minutes of the half. But they couldn’t get the deficit closer than 10 points.

Kansas State struggled to put the game away, as the Knights kept responding to its runs. But the Wildcats finally stretched the lead to a game-high 22 points with just more than two minutes remaining.

K-State used a 13-2 run midway through the first half to turn a tight contest into a comfortable margin, leading 28-14 at the under-8 timeout. The Wildcats’ lead never dipped back to single digits the rest of the half.

The Wildcats went to the locker room with a 46-30 lead. They held a 17-10 advantage on the boards, and connected on 8-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half.

Haggerty didn’t score his first point until nearly halfway through the first half, but he still scored 12 points in the half, tying him with Bashir for the game high for the Wildcats. Johnson, the third starting guard for the Wildcats, chipped in 7 first-half points.

Bellarmine had only 8 first-half turnovers, an improvement over the 22 the Knights committed in their first game of the season. Karasinski led the Knights with 11 points in the first half, and Wilson added 10.

–Field Level Media