K-State basketball falls to TCU on last-second 3. Here are takeaways from the defeat

Kansas State’s 75-72 loss against TCU on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum could be viewed through two very different lenses.

Some might say the Horned Frogs showed admirable levels of grit, determination and talent as they fought back from a double-digit deficit and won an important Big 12 road game, especially when Jameer Nelson Jr. drained a desperation 3-pointer to clinch the victory with 1.1 seconds remaining.

Others will say that K-State simply lost this one.

Wildcat supporters definitely felt like their team let a victory slip through its fingers. K-State led by 10 in the first half and failed to take control of the game. Later, it pulled ahead 49-41 in the second half and once again squandered a big lead.

So much so that K-State was the team suddenly trying to mount a comeback in the final minutes after TCU reeled off a 20-2 run.

K-State refused to quit and forced TCU to make plays in the final seconds to win the game, but the Wildcats could have easily avoided being in that position to begin with. Instead, the Horned Frogs walked away winners thanks to a memorable play just before the buzzer.

“It was an unbelievable shot by Jameer and so clutch,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “The main thing we wanted to do there was get the last shot and obviously he did.”

Regardless, this was a potentially devastating loss for the Wildcats (15-10, 5-7 Big 12). They entered the weekend with only faint hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament and badly needed a victory over the Horned Frogs (18-7, 7-5 Big 12) to improve their postseason resume. It didn’t happen. Fans can probably stop wondering about K-State’s chances of reaching March Madness.

K-State coach Jerome Tang isn’t ready to give up, though.

“There’s nobody in that locker room that’s quitting,” Tang said. “There’s nobody in the locker room that’s panicking. You know, this is a Big 12 game that comes down to one possession and we can figure out how to correct one or two possessions and flip this thing.”

TCU’s Micah Peavy led all scorers with a career-high 26 points. K-State had few answers for him.

Tylor Perry responded with 24 points, but that wasn’t enough for the Wildcats to pull off an important victory.

K-State will try to bounce back from this result in its next game on Monday at Texas.

Until then, here are some takeaways from Saturday’s action against TCU:

Tylor Perry found new ways to score

By now, K-State fans know to expect a handful of 3-pointers from Tylor Perry every time he steps on the floor.

He was one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters at North Texas and he is K-State’s leading outside shooter this season.

So it came as a major surprise when the senior forward led the Wildcats with 24 points against TCU without making a single shot from beyond the arc, going 0-for-6 on 3-pointers.

Perry found new, creative ways to score in this game. Instead of firing away from 3-point range, he drove the basket and made six shots from 2-point range. He also got to the free-throw line and went a perfect 12-for-12 on those shots.

It wasn’t enough for K-State to get the win. The Wildcats didn’t shoot well as a team, going just 1-of-15 from 3-point range. But it did show off Perry’s versatility on offense.

“I have been around college basketball for a long time,” Perry said, “and you’ve got to find different ways to score the ball. ... Teams are obviously trying to take the 3 away from me. I haven’t been really shooting it well of late. So instead of settling, I tried to get into the paint.”

One K-State reserve played with admirable hustle

It was hard to miss David N’Guessan in this game.

The senior forward was zooming across the court every single time that Jerome Tang put him on the floor. That put him in position to make a lot of plays that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet, like saving balls from going out of bounds and setting hard screens to get his teammates open.

But he played with so much effort that his contributions were noticed. At one point, he ended up on the scorer’s table after he dove out of bounds to try and save a loose ball at midcourt. Tang walked up the sideline and gave N’Guessan a high-five as soon as he was on his feet.

Later, N’Guessan came running across the lane to block a shot out of bounds.

This is where N’Guessan is at his best. He’s not an elite scorer or rebounder, but he knows how to play hard and help the Wildcats as a glue guy. K-State could use more of that from him moving forward.

He finished with 12 points and four rebounds.

The Wildcats can’t seem to avoid scoring droughts

Things couldn’t have started much better for K-State on Saturday morning.

The Wildcats played with impressive levels of energy when the game began, especially on defense, and jumped out to a 14-4 lead. TCU was unable to get out in transition and score easy buckets like it usually does. The Horned Frogs looked off. Dixon understandably called a timeout midway through the first half to try to get things turned around.

If K-State could find a way to keep its foot on the proverbial gas pedal, this might never have been a game.

But the Wildcats were unable to sustain their hot start. In fact, they went ice cold. K-State didn’t score a single point over the next 5 minutes and 45 seconds of game action, which allowed the Horned Frogs to fight back and take a lead.

It seems like not a single game goes by without the Wildcats getting stuck in a prolonged scoring slump.

“Our offense just gets stagnant at times,” Perry said. “That’s on the point guard. Can’t put the blame on nobody else. It’s on me. I’m just not executing like I’m supposed to.”

That is among the biggest reasons why K-State finds itself on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble right now. But if the scoring slumps ever stop, the Wildcats might be able to end the regular season on a winning streak.

K-State didn’t seem fazed by the scoring drought on Saturday and took a its first halftime lead (28-24) in more than a month on TCU. Then it fought back from a similar scoring drought in the second half.

Problem is, those scoring slumps led to a loss.