Perfectly Wild

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Kansas State did it again.

The Wildcats, who fell behind by a seemingly insurmountable deficit, engineered a mighty comeback, and quieted another crowd on the road by delivering a 71-70 victory over Arizona State that was perfectly wild at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona.

Just three days after overcoming a large, early deficit to stun No. 3 Iowa State 80-61 in Ames, Iowa, the Wildcats this time clawed back from an 18-2 hole against Arizona State to take a 35-32 lead at halftime and eventually storm ahead 48-35 before holding off a Sun Devils rally in a back-and-forth tussle.

The 16-point deficit to win marked the second-largest comeback victory on the road in K-State history behind a 17-point comeback win at California in 1995.

"I'm just super proud of the team," K-State head coach Jerome Tang said. "To win back-to-back road games, it's hard, especially that second game."

K-State, 11-11 overall and 5-6 in the Big 12 Conference, has now won consecutive road games for the first time since winning at No. 6 Texas and No. 19 Baylor in January 2023. Arizona State dropped to 12-10 and 3-8.

Senior David N'Guessan scored a game-high 22 points and added eight rebounds, and Max Jones had 15 points and made three 3-pointers. Brendan Hausen had 12 points on four 3-pointers, and Coleman Hawkins had 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists. In the middle of it all was point guard Dug McDaniel, who had seven points, eight rebounds and nine assists in 37 minutes.

K-State outshot Arizona State 47% to 39% overall, including 38% (10-of-26) to 32% (12-of-37) on 3-point attempts. K-State also won the rebounding battle 38-34, suffered just 11 turnovers, and had 20 assists on 27 made baskets.

At the start, it wasn't pretty.

K-State trailed 15-0 on a 3-pointer by BJ Freeman with 14:43 left, and it wasn't until Jones made a short jumpshot that the Wildcats finally got on the board nearly seven minutes into the game.

From the outset, both teams fired up 3-pointers, but the Wildcats began going to work inside the paint — K-State outscored Arizona State 18-4 in points in the paint in the first half — while the Sun Devils settled for shot attempts from the outside (7-of-25 shooting from behind the line in the first half). Jones, N'Guessan and Hawkins took turns driving the lane for baskets as the Wildcats mounted their comeback.

"Just for the record, we did not want to start like that," Tang said. "We didn't want a back-and-forth game, but our guys, man, they fought through. We didn't start the way we wanted to, we faced some adversity."

Although Arizona State stormed out front to take a 18-2 lead, K-State outscored the Sun Devils 33-14 the rest of the half, including a 16-3 scoring run over the last 4:14. K-State made 9 of its last 10 field-goal attempts and Jones finished off an exciting first half with a 3-pointer off a fastbreak to lift the Wildcats to a 35-32 lead at halftime.

K-State led for a total of 42 seconds in the first half.

"We faced some adversity, we stuck together," Tang said, "and we built the lead in the second half."

K-State took its first 10-point lead of the night when Hausen drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with 13:31 remaining in regulation. After an Arizona State miss, K-State came back and Hausen drained another 3-pointer for a 48-35 lead.

"The screens to get Brendan open were big time," Tang said.

After trailing 18-2, K-State went onto outscore Arizona State 46-17.

However, Arizona State made a push and cut it to 50-43 before Hawkins drove baseline against smaller defenders for a layup. Basher Jihad answered with a 3-pointer and suddenly it was 53-48 with 8:27 left. Jayden Quaintancegot Arizona State to within 54-51 with 7:54 left on a free throw.

Jones came through with another 3-pointer to make it 57-51. Hausen added another 3-pointer to make it 60-52.

Arizona State kept coming back. A Joson Sanon 3-pointer got the Sun Devils to within 62-59 with 5:11 to go. Sanon stole the ball from Hawkins and Alston Mason scored a layup to get Arizona State to within one point. Then Jihad blocked Hawkins and Mason found Quaintance for a dunk as Arizona State took a 63-62 lead with 3:38 left.

Momentum, again, seemed to be on the Sun Devils' side.

"We have struggled together, so that it's built perseverance in us, and it reveals the great character these young men have," Tang said. "When you have perseverance and character you always have hope."

The teams exchanged baskets. No lead seemed safe. N'Guessan made a pair of layups as the Wildcats regained the lead at 66-65 with 2:25 left, prompting an Arizona State timeout.

Then Freeman answered with a layup to make it 67-66 with 1:51 to go, prompting K-State to call a timeout.

Things changed, though, when Hawkins drained a 3-pointer to make it 69-67 with 1:26 to go. Arizona State couldn't answer that long-range shot and Quaintance fouled N'Guessan the next time down the court.

N'Guessan made both free throws to make it 71-67 with 54 seconds to go. But Mason came down the court and made a layup and drew a foul on Hawkins for an and-1.

K-State led 71-70 when McDaniel missed a 3-pointer and N'Guessan was whistled for a foul when he attempted to stuff Quaintance with 2.5 seconds remaining, preventing a score and sending the 17-year-old freshman forward to the free throw line.

"Dave had a big game for us, and we needed him to," Tang said. "We needed every one of those points. At the end, I saw a loose ball, and then we didn't get the ball, and all the sudden I see (Quaintance) jumping up to dunk the ball. Thank God that Dave got there and fouled him."

Quaintance missed the first free throw attempt.

Then he missed the second.

Game over.

That means K-State has now won four games in a row as it prepares to face Kansas on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.

"I'm fired up about Saturday," Tang said. "Fans, we didn't do this on purpose to keep you up late, but we need you all on Saturday, and we know you're going to show up and show out. Our guys are excited and we're looking forward to it. It doesn't matter who we're playing on Saturday, we need you on Saturday.

"This team, man, you've got a lot to be proud of. I'm fired up about going home."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brendan Hausen

Coleman Hawkins

Max Jones

Dug McDaniel

David N'Guessan

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