Kansas State Basketball: Wildcat’s wild win in Big 12 quarterfinals guarantees NCAA Tournament bid
The Kansas State Wildcats needed to survive a buzzer beater and a hungry TCU Horned Frogs team to advance to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
Kansas State certainly knows how to put on a show.
Forty minutes wasn’t enough to determine a winner in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal between the Wildcats and the TCU Horned Frogs. After five extra minutes, however, the Wildcats came away with the dramatic 66-64 victory.
The teams played an extremely even first half, but TCU looked poised to run away with it early in the second, building a nine-point lead. Kansas State never went away, though, They kept battling back until they had a 59-56 lead with under a minute to go.
Then, Desmond Bane happened.
Desmond Bane juuuuust gets the ball off at the buzzer to keep TCU alive. pic.twitter.com/2PtAfv4gOr
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 8, 2018
The overtime period was tight, with only two field goals made between the two teams. Ultimately, Barry Brown clinched a victory for the Wildcats with a layup 11.2 seconds from the final buzzer sounding.
Even then, free throw misses from Alex Robinson were needed to clinch the victory.
Kansas State was led by Makol Mawien, who scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds on the afternoon. Three other Wildcats scored in double figures, including Dean Wade, who knocked down both of his three-point attempts.
The Wildcats will need more bench production going forward, though; the bench only contributed ten points (four more than TCU’s bench, but who’s counting). Additionally, they shot just 20% from three-point range, well below the team’s 35.1% average.
This loss between two at-large contenders in the Big 12 shouldn’t harm the Horned Frogs too badly. We had them as a No. 6 seed prior to Thursday’s games, so they won’t drop any further than a No. 8 seed going forward.
For Kansas State, the win should provide a major boost. The Wildcats were more on the fringe as a No. 10 seed. That should be up to a No. 9 seed tomorrow.
Next: Significant injury for Kansas
They’ll rise further if they can top either Oklahoma State or Kansas in the Big 12 semifinals on Friday.