Kansas State University Athletics
Kansas State University
15-12 (6-10)
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Kansas
22-7 (13-3)
Wildcats Run Out of Gas Against Jayhawks
Mar 04, 2006 | Men's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) - Brandon Rush tied a career high with 24 points, and No. 18 Kansas beat Kansas State 66-52 on Saturday to clinch at least a share of the Big 12 championship.
Kansas (22-7, 13-3 Big 12), which had been projected to be in a rebuilding mode this year, can win its sixth conference title outright if No. 6 Texas loses its regular-season finale to No. 19 Oklahoma on Sunday.
Mario Chalmers added 14 points and Russell Robinson added 11 for the Jayhawks, who extended their winning streak in Manhattan to 23 games and are 18-0 in Bramlage Coliseum since it opened in 1989.
The Wildcats (15-12, 6-10) made it close in the second half but failed to get their first season sweep of Kansas since 1983.
Rush, a freshman guard, took only eight shots and was held to 12 points when Kansas State won 59-55 on Jan. 14 in Lawrence, breaking a 31-game losing streak to the Jayhawks. This time, he was 9-for-18 from the field, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range.
The Jayhawks went 6-for-9 from outside the arc in the first half, taking a 15-point lead at the break, before Kansas State started its comeback.
The Wildcats opened the second half with an 8-0 run to get within 39-32. They twice cut the margin to three points, the last time on Cartier Martin's 3-pointer with just under 11 minutes left to get within 49-46.
But they didn't score again from the field, and clutch plays by freshman forward Julian Wright helped the Jayhawks regain control of the game.
Wright's tip-in with 6:12 left made it 54-47. On Kansas State's ensuing possession, he made a diving steal, rolled over while avoiding a traveling call and flipped to Rush for a dunk. Then, after rebounds at each end by Wright, Robinson hit a 3-pointer to give Kansas a 59-47 lead with five minutes to go.
Kansas State's David Hoskins hit four free throws in a one-minute span, the last two cutting Kansas' lead to 60-52 with 3:11 left, but those were the Wildcats' last points of the day.
Martin led the Wildcats with 17 points and was the only Kansas State player in double figures.
Point guard Clent Stewart, who led the Wildcats with 15 points in their victory in Lawrence, has been struggling with an ankle injury and was held scoreless on Saturday.
Kansas State hit its first three field goals and took a 6-2 lead in the first 3 1/2 minutes, but then committed a rash of turnovers and missed straight shots over the next 5 1/2 minutes. The Jayhawks capitalized with a 16-1 run, including a 10-0 stretch in which Chalmers scored five points, for an 18-7 lead with just under 11 1/2 minutes left in the first half.
The Jayhawks closed out the half with a 9-3 run - capped by Rush's banked 3-pointer with 1 second left - for a 39-24 halftime lead.
The Wildcats missed several chances to keep the game close early on, committing eight first-half turnovers - which Kansas turned into 11 points - and going 4-for-10 from the line before the break.
Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge was given a technical foul in the first half, for protesting a no-call on Kansas' offensive end, but the Jayhawks got only one point out of it.
An intentional foul on the Wildcats' Akeem Wright proved costlier, though. Chalmers hit both free throws and made a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, giving Kansas the first five points of its early 10-0 run.
