Kansas State basketball opens Big 12 play with overtime victory against West Virginia
The Kansas State men’s basketball team began Big 12 play with a dramatic victory over West Virginia on Saturday inside Bramlage Coliseum.
K-State made several important plays in the late going and held off the Mountaineers 82-76 in overtime.
This game transpired in the exact opposite fashion of the K-State football team’s 45-20 loss against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl at the start of the day. West Virginia jumped out to an early lead, but the Wildcats methodically fought back until they were on top.
The Mountaineers surged to a 17-3 lead at the start of the game. The Wildcats dominated the rest of the game to eventually win in overtime.
Markquis Nowell came up huge for K-State in the victory. The senior point guard scored 23 points. sent out 10 assists and registered seven steals in the game. He came oh so close to recording the first triple-double in school history. Keyontae Johnson also came up big with 18 points, while Abayomi Iyiola had 14 while filling in for David N’Guessan.
This will go down as the most impressive victory yet of the Jerome Tang era.
Since Tang took over as coach earlier this season, he had guided the Wildcats to an impressive start, but none of their victories came against teams rated in the top 50 of Ken Pomeroy’s college basketball database. That changed on Saturday with a win that proves that K-State is ready to compete against a rigid Big 12 schedule.
K-State (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) won thanks to a series of clutch plays during the second half and in overtime. Every time it looked like West Virginia (10-3, 0-1) might take control of the game, the Wildcats found a way to prevent them from doing so.
The Mountaineers did force overtime Kedrian Johnson hit a three-pointer as time expired. But the Wildcats responded by scoring the first six points of overtime to take a 72-66 lead.
There was no looking back from there.
K-State will try to continue its winning ways when it is next in action on Tuesday at Texas.
