K-State Starts Slow, Loses To #23 Oklahoma For Third Straight Defeat

The Kansas State Wildcats missed their first eleven shots from the field and dug a hole they couldn’t crawl out of in a 73-53 loss to the #23 Oklahoma Sooners at Bramlage Coliseum on Tuesday night.

K-State didn’t score for over eight minutes to begin the game and didn’t make a field goal until the 10:30 mark of the first half, by which point Oklahoma had built a 12-3 lead. The Wildcats shot a dismal 23 percent (6-23) in the first 20 minutes and finished the night just 30.2 percent from the floor, their second-worst mark of the season.

Oklahoma built a 16-point halftime advantage at 35-19 and never trailed in the second half. K-State did threaten to make it interesting midway through a foul-filled second half, getting as close as seven at 51-44 with 8:28 to play after a Tylor Perry free throw, but the Sooners responded by going on a 6-0 run in the next minute and 33 seconds to restore a double-digit advantage they never relinquished.

Perry’s 23 points led K-State in the losing effort. The Wildcats got just a combined nine points from their two leading scorers, Cam Carter (5 points, 2-12 FG) and Arthur Kaluma (4 pts, 1-8 FG). The Sooners were led by Jalen Moore’s 23 points, with Javian McCollum adding 21 points.

The Wildcats drop to 14-7 with the loss, their third in a row, and are now 4-4 in Big 12 play. It’s the longest losing streak of the Jerome Tang era, and coupled with Saturday’s 22-point loss at Houston, it’s back-to-back losses of 20-plus points, which had not happened even once prior under Tang’s leadership. Oklahoma is now 16-5 and 4-4 in the Big 12.

K-State returns to action Saturday at Oklahoma State.