Two teams with plenty to play for will close the Big 12 regular season on Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, Kan., as No. 10 Iowa State seeks revenge for a Feb. 1 home loss to Kansas State.
The Wildcats (15-15, 9-10 Big 12) will look to finish the conference season at .500 and improve their chances for postseason play after winning their last two games.
Kansas State also will honor four seniors, including three of their top five scorers: David N’Guessan (13.1 points per game), Coleman Hawkins (10.6) and Max Jones (10).
Iowa State (22-8, 12-7) still hopes to secure a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament this month with a strong finish.
It’s been a season of streaks for the Wildcats, who have both a six-game winning streak and a six-game losing skid. With a victory Saturday, they still have a chance for a bye in the first round of the Big 12 Championship next week in Kansas City, pending the results of other conference games.
Houston already has locked up the top seed in the Big 12 tournament.
Kansas State kept its bye chance alive with a 54-49 road win Wednesday night against Cincinnati. The Wildcats overcame a sluggish first half to shut down the Bearcats. The Wildcats held Cincinnati to 36.8 percent shooting (21 of 57) from the field, including just 11.1 percent (2 of 18) from 3-point range.
“We are learning that we can have struggles and success at the same time,” Wildcats coach Jerome Tang said after the game. “I love how my guys are responding.
“In the first half, we just weren’t making shots. They were just playing with more force than we were. In the second half, we just kept putting pressure on the rim. That was what we wanted to do.”
Kansas State also got back Hawkins, who had missed the previous three games with a knee injury. He finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds in about 35 minutes of action.
The Wildcats swept the Bearcats this season, much as they’re trying to do with the Cyclones. On Feb. 1, Kansas State snapped then-No. 3 Iowa State’s 29-game home-court winning streak with an emphatic 80-61 victory.
Besides revenge, Iowa State will look to bounce back from a heart-breaking 88-85 double-overtime home loss to No. 23 BYU on Tuesday night. The Cyclones trailed 54-33 with 13:16 left in regulation but went on a furious rally to send the game into overtime as Joshua Jefferson hit a free throw with nine seconds left to tie the score at 68.
Each team scored 11 points in the first overtime before BYU outscored the Cyclones 9-6 in the second extra period.
“BYU deserves lots of credit for how they played,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “But at the same time, we had our chances. That should be frustrating. So what you do is you learn from it and you become better for it.
“We dug ourselves a hole. (It was) unacceptable on our end to allow our offensive disappointment to permeate our defense.”
The loss was just the second at home for the Cyclones this season, following the surprise blowout defeat to the Wildcats.
–Field Level Media
