Kansas State University Athletics
Kansas State University
Toledo
Slow Start Too Much To Overcome For Kansas State Men
Nov 24, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Nov 24, 2002
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands - Gilson DeJesus scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers that helped the Wildcats rally, but Kansas State could never get its offense untracked in a 58-50 loss to Toledo Sunday night at the Paradise Jam.
Coupled with Saturday night's loss to BYU, K-State (0-2) has now opened the season with back-to-back setbacks for the first time since 1983-84 campaign, when the Wildcats dropped consecutive games to Loyola-Chicago and Utah at the Tribune Charties Tournament in Chicago.
Nick Moore scored 19 points and Keith Triplett added 11 points to lead Toledo. Sammy Villegas added 10 points for the Rockets (1-1), who scored the game's first 12 points and led the contest wire-to-wire.
Pervis Pasco chipped in with eight points before fouling out with 2:47 remaining. Jarrett Hart and Tim Ellis each tallied seven for the Wildcats.
DeJesus and Toledo guard Sammy Villegas tied for game-high rebound honors with six, but it was the Rockets who won the battle of the boards, outrebounding K-State, 29-21.
"Offensively we just could not find a way to play well at that end of the floor," said head coach Jim Wooldridge. "Defensively I thought we gave a great effort. But when you're not playing well on the offensive end you almost have to play mistake-free."
Kansas State missed six of its first seven shots from the field and committed four turnovers in the opening nine minutes of a game filled with miscues. The two teams combined for 49 turnovers, including 24 by K-State.
After trailing 32-23 at the break and by as many as 11 with 14 minutes to play, four different Wildcats combined to spark an 18-9 run that pulled K-State within a bucket at 47-45 with 6:46 remaining. DeJesus connected on a pair of treys during the spurt.
"Gilson play really hard again," Wooldridge said. "He was active on the boards and made some critical shots that got us back in the game. He always gives a great effort."
But a 3-pointer by Triplet on Toledo's next possession put the Rockets back up by five and Kansas State was unable to get any closer than three the rest of the way.
Toledo, which finished the game a sparkling 20-for-23 from the foul line, put to rest any late comeback notions the Cats had, canning 8 of 8 from the stripe in the final four minutes.
Kansas State meets the loser of tonight's Michigan-Virginia Tech battle at 2 p.m. (CST)/4 p.m. (AST) during the first game of Monday's Paradise Jam championship round.
