No. 2 Kansas blows lead, escapes K-State with 72-63 win

As we’ve found before, though, K-State just hasn’t learned to come from behind and close a game out.

Images from the Jayhawks’ rematch against Kansas State, Saturday in Manhattan.

“I’m happy he came back and played with great energy, nearly a double-double”, K-State coach Bruce Weber said. There are still a lot of things we could do better, definitely can get better on the defensive end.

Kansas continues its pursuit of 12-straight Big 12 regular-season titles when facing Baylor on Tuesday night (7 p.m. CST, ESPN2) in Waco, Texas.

That stretch allowed Kansas to build a 17-point lead and even though K-State trimmed it to three a couple of times down the stretch, KU left Manhattan feeling as if it had continued its recent run of solid basketball.

Hurt hadn’t scored more than five points in his last four games.

“We would much rather play Kansas without Perry”, Weber said.

“To us it’s always been a rivalry”, he said. “We think he will be fine, but he does not feel very well right now”.

Lucas made 1 of 2 free throws before Justin Edwards hit a shot to bring the Wildcats within three points with 2:47 to play.

ABOUT KANSAS (22-4, 10-3 Big 12): All five starters registered double-figure points in the win over Oklahoma State, led by Wayne Selden Jr.

Down by four with 56 seconds remaining, the Wildcats missed a chance to pull any closer when a pass to the inside was deflected by Kansas’ Hunter Mickelson and careened off Johnson out of bounds. Without Perry Ellis and Landen Lucas for long stretches of the second half, KU actually did a pretty good job of keeping its composure and closed down the stretch when it mattered most, with both clutch free throw shooting and stellar defense. Kansas State reached the bonus at 9:41 but never reached the double-bonus. Wayne’s offensive rebound putback. “Barry had the open 3 in the corner, and he missed that”. Whatever it is that Self does to inspire that – and, don’t get me wrong, a ton of credit for this has to go to the make-up of each of those players – he should get a lot more credit for than he does. At one point, they combined to score 16 straight points for the Wildcats. Edwards had 11 and eight rebounds. Mason controlled the game tempo-wise and scored 16 points while dishing out five assists.

The game was talked about all over the K-State campus this past week with topics such as storming the court, the implications of the NCAA Tournament and the crowd favorite “Sandstorm” being played.

Ellis had a cut opened on the back of his head in the second half and returned after receiving 12 stitches before leaving with an eye injury after a collision with Selden. But they couldn’t get over the edge. Justin Edwards scored 17 points to lead Kansas State.

K-State battled to an early 6-4 lead as the Jayhawks struggled to make shots.

KSU’s Johnson, who was nine of 10 from the line, went one of two at 1:19 and KU still led by four.

Coming out of half-time, it looked like the Jayhawks were going to run away with it, as they held a double digit lead through the under 8 timeout.

Kansas controlled the tip and went back-and-forth with the Wildcats before owning a 15-12 deficit at the hands of a 7-0 K-State run. Kansas State jumped out to a 14-4 lead early and took a 35-24 advantage into halftime.

Brown and Mykhailiuk traded 3s before Wesley Iwundu scored back-to-back baskets to put the Wildcats ahead 25-21. But we are nit-picking, and that’s good news for KU fans, because so many other aspects of the game are going so well right now.

The Kansas State Wildcats are 15-11 this season and they are coming off of a win over TCU that ended a game losing skid.