Three takeaways from K-State’s basketball victory over Wichita State in Kansas City

That’s more like it.

The Kansas State basketball fans who filled T-Mobile Center on Thursday were likely all thinking something along those lines as they watched the Wildcats defeat Wichita State 69-60 in a game between in-state rivals.

K-State turned in its worst performance of the season the last time it took the court, which led to a humbling 62-46 home loss to Nebraska in which Jerome Tang’s team scored a grand total of 12 points in the second half.

But the Wildcats bounced back from that clunker and once again looked like a squad with NCAA Tournament potential against the Shockers. They did it in front of an announced crowd of 18,660, which was the largest crowd to ever watch K-State in a “Wildcat Classic” game on this floor.

“We wanted to enforce our will on them,” K-State guard Tylor Perry said. “We felt like Nebraska punked us in our own house. So it was a big emphasis on getting to the paint and enforcing our will. I think we did a really good job of doing that tonight.”

K-State (9-3) beat Wichita State (8-4) with an aggressive brand of basketball that allowed it to get to the free-throw line for 29 free throws times while holding the Shockers to nine free-throw attempts.

Perry led the Wildcats with a game-high 17 points in addition to five assists, four steals and three rebounds. But he got lots of help from the rest of K-State’s starting lineup. Cam Carter scored 15 points, David N’Guessan added 13 and Arthur Kaluma had 11.

Wichita State pushed K-State for much of the game and even led at times in the first half. But the Wildcats found a consistent groove as the night went on and eventually pulled away.

The Wildcats will get the next few days off for a holiday break and then play Chicago State in their next game on Jan. 2 at home.

Until then, here are some takeaways from the action against Wichita State:

Breakthrough game for David N’Guessan

It’s been a mostly disappointing season for K-State forward David N’Guessan.

The 6-foot-9 senior forward entered Thursday’s action averaging 6.9 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, but he was only making 56.5% of his shots and his free-throw shooting was at an abysmal 26.1%.

N’Guessan’s struggles were so noticeable during a recent loss to Nebraska that K-State coach Jerome Tang was asked about what it might take for his starting big man to begin producing at a higher level.

His answer: time. Tang said no one on the K-State roster works harder than N’Guessan between games. He is even staying after practice now to make 300 free throws per day. At some point, all that hard work had to start showing up in games, so Tang wasn’t worried.

Turns out, he was right. N’Guessan rewarded Tang for showing trust in him by scoring 13 points and grabbing 9 rebounds against Wichita State. He even made 3 of 5 free throws, ending a streak of eight straight misses dating back to a game against North Alabama on Dec. 2.

“I just want to thank God and the coaching staff for putting that confidence in me and believing in me,” N’Guessan said. “They support me even though I’m not playing my greatest. Tonight was a good night for me. Shout out to my teammates. They were finding me at the right times and I was able to finish.”

Tang said K-State also showed N’Guessan video from last season and over the summer when he was playing well to get help him snap out of his slump.

“We wanted him to get back to that,” Tang said. “He’s a good basketball player. For him to have 13 points and nine rebounds and three blocks, that was great. I’m so proud of him.”

K-State had a big advantage at the free-throw line

The Wildcats went to the free-throw line for 29 free throws and scored 23 points while they were at the charity stripe.

That turned out to be a big difference-maker in the game, as the Shockers only went to the line for 9 shots, making 5.

“We practice that every day,” Carter said. “We were getting to the line and we shot a ton of free throws and we were shooting it good from the free-throw line. So why not keep doing it?”

Anytime there is that big of a disparity the losing coach is going to complain, and Wichita State’s Paul Mills was no exception. At one point, the Wichita State bench was even assessed a technical foul, which led to a pair of extra free throws for K-State.

The Shockers were understandably frustrated. But it’s not like there was a big difference in fouls. K-State committed 17 fouls and Wichita State was whistled for 21.

K-State was simply more aggressive in the paint and forced Wichita State into situations where it had to foul or surrender an easy basket. That was obviously a strategy for K-State coming into the game, and it paid dividends.

Freshman guard starting to make an impact

Macaleab Rich is quickly becoming a reliable bench player for the Wildcats.

Every time Tang sends the freshman guard into games lately he finds a way to make an impact.

Rich simply provides a boost of energy every time he steps onto the court. He had six points and three rebounds against Wichita State, and he got those stats mostly with hustle plays in which he routinely bullied past his defender and made something happen.

This effort came one game after he had seven points and nine rebounds against Nebraska.

A good reserve only has to be good at one or two things to be able to make a difference for his team. Rich provides extra energy like a spark plug.