Sir’Jabari Rice and Christian Bishop each scored 14 points as No. 10 Texas defeated No. 7 Kansas State 69-66 in Manhattan, Kansas, to stay in first place in the Big 12 Conference.
The Longhorns have a one-game lead on Iowa State and a two-game lead on four teams, including Kansas State.
Texas (19-4, 8-2 Big 12) also got 10 points apiece from Tyrese Hunter, Marcus Carr and Timmy Allen.
Kansas State (18-5, 6-4) was led by Keyontae Johnson with 16 points. He was joined in double figures by Desi Sills with 11 and Markquis Nowell with 10.
Texas outscored Kansas State 14-4 to start the second half to trim an 11-point halftime deficit to just 40-39. Bishop’s traditional 3-point play gave Texas a 46-45 lead — the Longhorns’ first advantage since 7-6.
The Longhorns kept the lead between two and six points for the next several minutes, leading 64-62 at the final media timeout.
Nowell tied it at 64 with a short jumper at the 3:08 mark. Rice put the Longhorns back in front with one of two free throws with 2:08 left. Nowell drove the lane for a short jumper with 1:01 left, giving the Wildcats a 66-65 lead.
Bishop put the Longhorns back up with a bucket inside. Kansas State missed a couple of opportunities to retake the lead before Rice hit two free throws for the final points.
Ismael Massoud missed a 3-point attempt just before the buzzer.
Kansas State found itself in trouble early when Johnson picked up his second foul just 1:07 into the game. Johnson came back into the game with 12:20 left and promptly hit a 3-pointer to get on the board. He finished the first half with five points and picked up his third foul with 5:21 left in the first half.
The Wildcats led by as many as 14 multiple times, including late in the half before Rice’s three free throws trimmed it to 36-25 at halftime. Texas shot just 30.4 percent (7 of 23) from the field in the half, including just 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.
Sills led a balanced scoring attack with seven points in the half as the teams combined to have five players score at least five.
–Field Level Media
