K-State Eliminated From Big 12 Tournament By Iowa State

The Kansas State Wildcats will have to sweat out Selection Sunday after their run in the Big 12 Tournament came to an end with a 76-57 loss to Iowa State in the quarterfinals on Thursday night.

The defeat ends Kansas State’s season with a 19-14 overall record, with most national experts predicting that they will miss out on a return to the NCAA Tournament despite nine wins against Big 12 competition and a respectable nine Quad 1 victories according to the NCAA’s NET rankings.

Turnovers were the undoing for the tenth-seeded Wildcats, who coughed up possession 20 times, leading to 23 Cyclone points. After Kansas State had trimmed a seven-point halftime deficit to just one point at 40-39, they proceeded to turn the ball over six times in the next five minutes, allowing Iowa State to push the lead back up to 13 points at 54-41 on a Tamin Lipsey and-one with just over 11 minutes to play.

The second-seeded Cyclones, who had lost to K-State in the regular season finale in Manhattan just five days previous, led for almost 36 of the 40 minutes, and had four double-figure scorers led by Robert Jones’ 18 points. Kansas State was led by Tylor Perry, who scored 18 points. Arthur Kaluma added 13 points and Will McNair chipped in with 12 for the Wildcats in the losing effort.

Iowa State advances to Friday’s semifinal at 8:30 pm.