GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Kansas State men’s basketball team is heading to the Sweet 16.
Its time in the NCAA Tournament is far from over thanks to a 75-69 victory over No. 6 seed Kentucky in the Round of 32 on Sunday at Greensboro Coliseum.
The No. 3 seed Wildcats defeated Kentucky with toughness and grit in the first half and then clutch shooting in the final minutes. Markquis Nowell led all scorers with 27 points on top of nine assists. Keyontae Johnson added 13 points and Desi Sills and Nae’Qwan Tomlin both had 12.
K-State will next play the winner of Marquette and Michigan State at Madison Square Garden in New York on Thursday.
Until then, here are some thoughts on Sunday’s action:
K-State saved its best for last
The purple-clad Wildcats didn’t shoot the ball particularly well in this game ... until things mattered most.
K-State heated up from the outside with one clutch three-pointer after the next in crunch time on Sunday.
Markquis Nowell made three shots from beyond the arc in the second half and showed a lot of emotion after each of them by turning to the Kentucky bench and celebrating. But his teammates came through with timely swishes all well. Ismael Massoud came off the bench to drain an unlikely three in the final minutes and Keyontae Johnson hit a step-back three to give K-State a 67-62 lead.
All of them got big reactions from the crowd.
This game was back-and-forth most of the way with neither team truly able to find separation. But that changed when K-State players started making clutch shots.
Kentucky didn’t have an answer for that.
Markquis Nowell shined on college basketball’s biggest stage
Most of the attention coming into this game was on Kentucky forward Oscar Tshiebwe, which made sense because of how well he played in the opening round against Providence.
But Nowell stole the spotlight away from him in the Round of 32 by delivering a fantastic game that featured 27 points and nine assists. His ability to make shots and create scoring opportunities for others was the difference in this game.
That’s saying something when you consider that Tshiebwe had 25 points and 18 rebounds.
If college basketball fans didn’t know about Nowell before this weekend, they do now.
Three-pointers were overrated in the first half
K-State didn’t make a single shot from the three-point line in the first half of this game, going 0 for 12 from beyond the arc, but that didn’t stop the Wildcats from taking an early lead over Kentucky.
Few would have expected that.
Yet Jerome Tang’s team did everything else right and overcame a poor shooting effort to lead 29-26 at halftime. K-State only turned the ball over five times and forced Kentucky into 11 giveaways. The Cats went 10 of 13 on layups. They went two of two on dunks. That more than made up for a goose egg from the three-point line.
K-State had to wait until the 14:32 mark of the second half to get its first three to fall, from Markquis Nowell.
Not even an early double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds from Tshiebwe was enough for Kentucky to possess the lead. K-State played stellar defense and limited Kentucky to a pair of three-pointers.
The first half was punctuated by three tremendous passes from Nowell in the final minutes, including a last-second lob dunk to Nae’Qwan Tomlin.
Kentucky had to feel fortunate to only be trailing by one possession. Had K-State been making shots, it could have easily been up by double digits.
When K-State finally got a few threes to fall in the final minutes, the purple Wildcats won the game.
