No. 9 MBB Falls Short at No. 14 Kansas State

Tuesday, February 21

Manhattan, Kan.

6 PM

Baylor

20-8,9-6Big 12

Kansas State

21-7,9-6Big 12

Baylor

Kansas St.

No. 9 MBB Falls Short at No. 14 Kansas State

2/21/2023 8:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Tchamwa Tchatchoua records double-double in loss

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            MANHATTAN, Kan. – Even before Tuesday night, first-year Kansas State coach Jerome Tang had Scott Drew's vote as the National Coach of the Year.
            "And that's not because he's my brother, that's because he's earned it," Drew said of his longtime assistant and best friend. "Coach Tang should be national coach of the year, period. They had two players. They filled the whole roster. They were picked at the bottom."
            Completing a season sweep, Tang and the 14^th-ranked K-State Wildcats (21-7, 9-6) dominated the second half to hand the ninth-ranked Bears (20-8, 9-6) their second-straight loss in the Sunflower State, 75-65, before a sellout crowd of 11,000 at Bramlage Coliseum.
            After losing a double-digit halftime lead in falling at then-No. 5 Kansas on Saturday in Lawrence, the Bears couldn't hold on to a 34-31 halftime lead in Tuesday's game. K-State shot 58% in the second half and went on a pivotal 12-1 run as Baylor went more than seven minutes without a field goal.
            "I don't know, both halves our defense really struggled," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "We gave up 58% today and 63% at Kansas. And our offense led to some of that. Today, they had 19 points on our turnovers. I do think we have an unbelievable backcourt, but we can't give up 19 points on turnovers. Part of being a good backcourt is taking care of the rock."
            Keyontae Johnson, who had 24 points and nine rebounds in the Wildcats' 97-95 overtime win last month in Waco, scored 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half. Scoreless in the first half, point guard Markquis Nowell hit 10-of-10 free throws and recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 assists.
            "We really had trouble matching up with (Johnson) all night," Drew said. "Nowell struggled from the field (2-of-11). When you're not making shots, how do you help your team win? Ten assists, zero turnovers; getting to the free throw line, 10-for-10, is another. I'm a a big fan of those two, hate playing against them. They're first-team all-leaguers."
            Using four different defenses to try to contain the 5-8 Nowell, Drew joked that the only defense that will work is "him graduating."
            After a painfully slow start that saw the Bears miss 12 of their first 18 shots and score just 13 points in the first 13 minutes of the game, freshman Keyonte George scored eight-straight points in an 11-0 run that gave Baylor a 24-23 lead with just under five minutes left in the half.
            Leading by as many as eight, BU went into the break up by three, 34-31, when the Wildcats got a 3-pointer and a dunk by Nae'qwan Tomlin in the last 1 ½ minutes.
            That seemed to flip the momentum, with K-State opening the second half with a Johnson 3-pointer and taking the lead, 37-35, on a pair of free throws by Nowell. After LJ Cryer tied it at 43-43 with a 3-pointer, the Wildcats went on the 12-1 run and took a double-digit lead on Cam Carter's dunk off a Baylor turnover.
            "It comes back to all of us, it's a team effort," said George, who had a game-high 23 points, setting a program freshman record with his 12^th 20-point game. "In the second half, things that we're giving up are things we can control. We have to play harder, including myself. Just go out there and play Baylor basketball, that's what we've got to do. Stop worrying about all the other things. We're going to figure out what we need to get better at."
Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, playing in his sixth game since returning from a knee injury, had his first double-double of the season with a season-high 11 points and 12 rebounds. That helped the Bears win a tight rebounding battle, 35-33, and outscore the Wildcats, 12-7, on second-chance points.
            LJ Cryer scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half, while Adam Flagler scored a season-low four points, missing 12 of 13 overall and going 0-for-6 from 3-point distance. George, Flagler and Cryer all played at least 35 minutes after logging a combined 106 minutes in Saturday's game at Kansas.
            "That's something we've got to analyze as a staff," Drew said of the guards' minutes, "because I don't know if we got tired in the second game on the road. I trust them. My job is to make sure I don't put them in positions to fail, though. We'll look at all the analytics and look at the second half, why we didn't have the juice and weren't able to do what we did the first half."
            Baylor returns home to face eighth-ranked Texas (22-6, 11-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center in another top-10 matchup. The Longhorns knocked off 23^rd-ranked Iowa State, 72-54, Tuesday night to stay atop the Big 12 standings with No. 3 Kansas (23-5, 11-4) and two games ahead of Baylor and K-State.
            "The great thing about the Big 12 is there are Quad 1 opportunities each and every night," Drew said. "There are top-25 games every night. That's why Keonte and these guys came to Baylor, to be in the best conference. I've been here 20 years, and it's the best it's ever been, top to bottom."