K-State Falls to 8/9 Iowa State, 95-61

Sunday, February 1

Manhattan, Kan.

1 p.m. CT

Kansas State University

10-12,1-8Big 12

Iowa State

20-2,7-2Big 12

Iowa St.

Kansas St.

Feb 01, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats (.pdf)Postgame Quotes (.pdf)Highlights Jerome Tang Press Conference Player Press Conference Photo Gallery

Junior P.J. Haggerty led all scorers with 23 points.to go with 9 rebounds.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – No. 8/9 Iowa State showed why it's one of the top teams in the nation on Sunday afternoon, as the Cyclones shot 55 percent from the field with five players in double figures en route to a 95-61 win over Kansas State before 8,031 fans at Bramlage Coliseum.

Iowa State (20-2, 7-2 Big 12) continued its best start in school history, as the Cyclones earned their fourth straight win, which includes three wins of 30 or more points, since consecutive road losses at Kansas and Cincinnati. The 34-point margin was the largest in the series over K-State.

Senior Joshua Jefferson paced the Cyclones with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go with 8 rebounds and 5 assists, while fellow senior Tamin Lipsey chipped in 16 points on 6-of-9 field goals to go with a game-high 9 assists and 4 steals. The nation's best 3-point shooter – junior Milan Momcilovic – knocked down 5 triples to go with 18 points. Freshman Killyan Toure and redshirt senior Nate Heise added 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Junior P.J. Haggerty led a shorthanded K-State team with a game-high 23 points, including 17 in the second half. He was joined in double figures by sophomore David Castillo with 11 points.

The Wildcats (10-12, 1-8 Big 12) played without 3 starters for the fourth straight game.

Iowa State used a 22-4 run midway through the first half to take early control at 24-8. The Cyclones followed with another 13-0 run to go ahead by 24 points (37-13) at the 6:29 mark before they scored 12 of the next 14 points to take a 49-17 lead with 2:20 before halftime.

Down 29 points at the break, the Wildcats got to within 54-31 at the 16:30 mark of the second half before the Cyclones answered back with an 11-2 spurt to go back ahead by 32 points (65-33). The lead ballooned from there, extending to as many as 39 points (90-51) with 3:32 remaining.

Iowa State was impressive on both ends of the court, connecting on 55 percent (33-of-60) from the field with assists on 28 of their 33 made field goals. The Cyclones made 14 3-pointers on 51.9 percent shooting, while making 75 percent (15-of-20) of their free throw attempts.

Defensively, they held the Wildcats to just 40.3 percent (25-of-62) shooting, including 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from 3-point rage, while scoring 21 points off 14 turnovers.

HEAD COACH JEROME TANG
Opening statement…
"First of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the blessing that I have to do this work with these guys on a daily basis. And I just love our guys, absolutely love them and so, thankful for this opportunity. Second thing is, this is Coaches vs. Cancer, sponsored by the American Cancer Society and to raise awareness. And I have three men in my life, David Kelly, who's the pastor that hired me as a youth pastor and a basketball coach. Elmer Frey, who's family that took me in when I was in Minnesota, so I had some place to stay on Sundays when I went to church, like another set of parents for me. And then Coach G [Jayson Gee], who's with us as our character coach, and all three men went in the fight against prostate cancer, and it's been a battle for them, and so I wore these shoes to honor them. And just really appreciate coach [Lon] Krueger for helping raise the awareness for the fight against cancer, his leadership there, and the golf tournament that he does, and then all of our legends that came back this weekend to support this place, this program. It was a great event last night that Bailey [Bachamp, Director of Operations] put together, and to see all the former players, coaches, just people who this university means so much to, and for them to be able to share some of that with our guys was super valuable. Lastly, credit to T.J. [Otzelberger] and Iowa State, incredible team. They did a great job. They're just way better than we are, so all the credit goes to them for the win."

On the most disappointing thing from his point of view…
"I'm not disappointed at all. Because I'm with these dudes every single day, and I know everything they're going through, and y'all don't. I was proud of our guys, especially in the second half."

On Iowa State defense disrupting the offense…
"Yeah, that ball screen defense is really good, and it's easy to show it on film and say, 'Hey, this is the person that's going to be open. This is the formation or alignment that will allow us to take advantage of it.' It's harder to do it from six feet, because as coaches, we see it from 30 but the guys have to play it at six feet. And so yeah, no, they did. They did an unbelievable job of taking away the short role, and then the next pass forward, and then we pinned ourselves on the sideline quite a bit, and so that hurt us."

On when does the season become a systematic issue rather than execution…
"I think that in the second half, you saw we went away from the ball screen, and we had more success. But sometimes you want to blame one team for doing wrong, instead of just giving the credit to the team that did a great job. I'm not sure, but I think their last three games, they kind of started each game like that, with a huge lead, and it didn't matter what the teams tried to do, because there's a difference, they're built differently. They're physically better than we are right now."

On his halftime message…
"That all of America is seeing what's on their chest, and did they like what they would say to America about who they are and what's on the inside of them? And they didn't like it. And so I told them, we get an opportunity in the second half, where they can change it. I thought in the second half, we did a better job… In the second half, we just fought more. Then, as a coaching staff, I think we put them in better positions to be successful."

On being proud of the guys despite the outcome…
"This is a message for my players. I love these guys, right? They work really, really hard, right? And this is the team they chose to come play, for this university, for this coaching staff, right? I love these dudes. And if you saw them the last two days of practice, you'd say, 'Man, those players, they're ready.' The problem is that Iowa State is just better. And sometimes you guys want there to be something that we could have done differently. You know that they're just better than we are right now, and so you chalk it up to them, and you tell you guys, you're proud of them for continuing to fight and not quitting."

On helping P.J. Haggerty score…
"Make shots. We'll go look at the film, and we're going to see the shot quality. I think in the first half, we probably had 10 open 3s, and we missed them. [Nate] Heise gets five and he makes three, players got to make some shots. So, that's how we can help him. Other guys have to step up and make some shots, and they weren't able to do it today. Once we were able to play out of the double team, I thought that we got good looks, we just didn't make them.'"

FIRST HALF
Back-to-back dunks by junior Dorin Buca gave K-State a 4-2 lead, but Iowa State ran off 12 straight points to take a 14-4 after a 3-pointer by senior Joshua Jefferson just after the first media timeout. A jumper by junior P.J. Haggerty ended a more than 5-minute scoring drought, but the Cyclones continued their surge with 10 of the next 12 points to go ahead 24-8 at the 9:43 mark.

A 3-pointer by freshman Andrej Kostic and sophomore David Castillo pulled K-State to within 24-13, but ISU responded with 13 straight points that included a rare 4-point play by junior Milan Momcilovic to go ahead 37-13 and force a timeout by head coach Jerome Tang with 6:29 to play. Haggerty ended the scoring drought with a jumper, but the Cyclones rattled off 7 more points to extend their lead to 44-15 at the final media timeout with 3:45 left.

The lead grew to as large as 32 points (49-17) after a 3-pointer by Jefferson with 2:20 remaining before halftime. A layup by Buca and 2 free throws by Kostic helped close the gap to 50-21 at the break. The 29-point halftime deficit tied for the largest all-time.

ISU connected on 58.1 percent (18-of-31) from the field, including 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from 3-point range, and had seven different players record at least one field goal. Three Cyclones scored in double figures, including 11 points each from seniors Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise.

K-State was held to a first-half low 21 points, making just 31 percent (9-of-29) from the field, including just 1-of-9 attempts (11.1 percent) from 3-point range. Buca and Haggerty led with 6 points each.

SECOND HALF
The Wildcats were able to cut the deficit to 54-31 with a 10-4 run to start the second half, which included 7 points from Haggerty. However, the Cyclones responded with 11 of the next 13 points to push back ahead 65-33 at the 13:29 mark.

Haggerty scored 8 points in a 16-8 run that sliced the deficit to 73-49 with 7:18 remaining. However, ISU responded again with another decisive run, scoring 13 of the next 15 points to push its advantage to 86-51 at the final media timeout with 3:59 to play.

The lead ballooned to as many as 39 points (92-53) after a dunk by Jefferson with 2:19 to play.
K-State finished the game with 8 of the last 11 points, including 3-pointers from Kostic and senior C.J. Jones, for the final 95-61 score.

Haggerty scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE

K-State dropped its second straight game with an 95-61 loss to No. 8/9 Iowa State.
K-State is now 1-8 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2020-21.
K-State is now 0-5 vs. Top 25 teams this season and 16-21 under Jerome Tang.
K-State still leads the all-time series with Iowa State, 147-96, including 85-31 in Manhattan… The Cyclones lead 33-30 in the Big 12 era.
K-State is now 8-6 at home this season and 47-15 under Jerome Tang.
K-State used a starting lineup of junior P.J. Haggerty, senior Nate Johnson, sophomore David Castillo, junior Taj Manning and junior Dorin Buca… This is the fourth straight time using this lineup and the fifth different lineup used this season.
Haggerty and Johnson have now started all 22 games.
Haggerty now has 88 career starts (Tulsa/Memphis/K-State), N. Johnson now has 82 career starts (Akron/K-State), Castillo and Manning now have 8 career starts while Buca earned his fourth straight start.
K-State played with just 9 available players due to injuries with 8 seeing time.

TEAM NOTES

K-State scored its 61 points on 40.3 percent (25-of-62) shooting, including 30.4 percent (7-of-23) from 3-point range, while making 4-of-6 from the free throw line.
The 34-point loss was the largest under head coach Jerome Tang.
K-State is now 0-9 when scoring less than 80 points this season.
Iowa State converted 14 K-State turnovers into a 21-6 edge in points off turnovers.
Iowa State also held advantages for points in the paint (36-32), second-chance points (10-8), fast-break points (14-12) and bench points (24-13).
Iowa State posted a 39-24 advantage on the glass, including 10 offensive boards that the Cyclones turned into a 10-8 edge in second-chance points.
K-State trailed 50-21 at halftime and is now 1-11 this season and 18-42 under head coach Jerome Tang when trailing at the break.
The 29-point halftime deficit tied for the largest in school history.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

Two Wildcats – junior P.J. Haggerty and sophomore David Castillo – scored in double figures.
Haggerty scored his game-high 23 points on 11-of-21 field goals, including 1-of-4 from 3-point range, to go with 9 rebounds and 3 assists in 34 minutes… He has now scored in double figures in 86 of 94 career games, including all 22 games this season… He now has scored 20 or more points in 16 of 22 games this season.
Castillo scored his 11 points on 4-of-10 field goals, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, in 30 minutes… He has now scored in double figures in 13 games in his career, including 12 this season.
Senior Nate Johnson had team-highs for assists (5) and steals (3) to go with 8 points.

WHAT'S NEXT
K-State will have a bye midweek before resuming Big 12 play on Saturday at TCU (13-8, 3-5 Big 12) at Schollmaier Arena. Tip is set for 1 p.m., CT on TNT. The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 21-14, including 18-12 in the Big 12 era. However, the Horned Frogs have won the last 3 meetings, including 63-62 in Fort Worth last season.

How to follow the 'Cats: For complete information on K-State men's basketball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X, Instagram and Facebook.