Kansas State University Athletics
Kansas State University
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Birmingham-Southern
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Kansas State Opens Season With 70-50 Win Over Birmingham-Southern
Nov 21, 2003 | Men's Basketball
By STEVE BRISENDINE
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Marques Hayden scored 15 points and three other players reached double figures as Kansas State pulled away in the second half to beat Birmingham-Southern 70-50 Friday night in the season opener for both teams.
Tim Ellis and Jeremiah Massey added 14 points each and freshman Dez Willingham finished with 10 for Kansas State.
Hayden was 5-for-5 from the field as the Wildcats shot 51 percent (25-for-49).
Birmingham-Southern, meanwhile, was 18-for-58 (31 percent) from the field and 23 percent (7-for-30) from 3-point range.
Kansas State held a significant advantage at the free-throw line, too, going 14-for-21 to the Panthers' 7-for-9 as Birmingham-Southern was called for 21 team fouls to 14 for the Wildcats.
Defensively, Kansas State held Birmingham-Southern to just five points in the final 41/2 minutes, and most of those came on James Collins' 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Wildcats trailed only once, when Jakob Sigurdarson put the Panthers up 2-0 just 25 seconds into the game. A 14-1 run gave Kansas State a 34-16 lead with just under 2 minutes left in the first half, and Willingham's 3-pointer in the closing seconds made it 37-20 at the break.
Birmingham-Southern, playing its first game as a full member of NCAA Division I after three years as a provisional member, got within 49-39 on Grant Davis' two free throws with 10:26 to go. But the Panthers went scoreless for almost 41/2 minutes after that, and Massey scored eight points in a 10-0 run that made it 59-39 with 6:21 left.
Sigurdarson hit three 3-pointers and led Birmingham-Southern with 17 points, but was held to five points in the second half. Derrick Williams and Davis added 10 points each for the Panthers.
