Kansas State men's basketball holds off stubborn Radford, 73-65: Three takeaways

MANHATTAN — Kansas State may want to reconsider scheduling afternoon games during the holidays, but no harm done.

After sleepwalking through much of the first half and the first few minutes of the second, the Wildcats finally took care of business Wednesday, heading home for Christmas with a 73-65 victory over Radford at Bramlage Coliseum.

Even so, they had to survive a late Radford surge that cut a 17-point lead to six in the final minute before finishing the job. K-State's 11-1 start is its best since the 2016-17 season.

The Wildcats had four players score in double figures, led by a Nae'Qwan Tomlin with a career-high 26 points and nine rebounds, and Keyontae Johnson with 16 points. Markquis Nowell had 10 points and 11 assists, with Desi Sills adding 10 points.

Kenyon Giles scored 20 points to lead Radford.

Here are three takeaways from the Wildcats' final nonconference game before opening Big 12 play at 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 against West Virginia.

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One foot out the door

K-State coach Jerome Tang expressed concern after Saturday night's decisive victory over Nebraska in Kansas City, that the Wildcats might be too eager Wednesday to get home for Christmas.

It showed in the first half against Radford, as the Highlanders led by five points early, and then closed the period with five straight to close within three at intermission.

Radford (6-7) led as late as two minutes into the second half before an 11-0 run finally created some separation for the Wildcats. Even so, the Wildcats had to hold off a late run by the Highlanders.

"The message the whole time coming into this game was, 'Don't go home yet,' because a lot of teams have lost buy games because they mentally went home," Nowell said. "Our focus was going 1-0 and winning this game and having Christmas and making it a merry Christmas and not just a regular Christmas."

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A weekday afternoon tip didn't help the atmosphere, but the matinee doubleheader — K-State's women played the opener at 11 a.m. and beat Morgan State, 77-46 — was scheduled in order to let the players maximize their holiday break.

Despite the slow start and shaky finish, Tang chose to put a positive spin on it, pointing out that despite its record, Radford had done the same thing against other top teams on the road.

"It's going to be a merry Christmas," he said. "We told the guys the difference between a Christmas and a merry Christmas is a dub (win). We knew this was a really good team.

"At halftime, you show them 11.8 seconds and they're up one against Notre Dame (a 79-76 Radford loss). They were down 21 at Marquette and turned around and cut it to a seven-point game with the ball, to our situation. They just don't go away."

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Nae'Qwan Tomlin flexes his muscles

On a day when leading scorer Johnson clearly was out of sync offensively at the start, Tomlin took it upon himself to put K-State on his back.

Not only were Tomlin's 26 points a career high by 11. He also matched his season high for rebounds with nine.

Tomlin, the junior transfer from Chipola College came in averaging 10.4 points with a season high of 15. He had eclipsed that total five minutes into the second half.

Johnson hit one 3-pointer, but did most of his damage above the rim, finishing with four dunks to give him 21 for the season. Two highlights were a double-hesitation drive from the left baseline and across the lane for a vicious one-handed slam, and a one-handed catch and finish on a lob pass from Nowell.

Johnson struggled in the first half, hitting just 2-for-7 shots as K-State held a slim 31-28 advantage at the break, but Tomlin made up for it by knocking down five shots for 11 points and pulling down five offensive rebounds.

By the time Johnson picked up the pace in the last 10 minutes, Tomlin already had 20 points. Johnson ended up 6-for-15 from the floor and missed all four of his 3-point attempts, but he did go over 1,000 points for his career in the game.

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Desi Sills provides instant offense

Desi Sills might be putting up starter-type numbers, but Jerome Tang likes what the graduate transfer guard gives K-State off the bench, both as a scorer and facilitator.

Against Radford, with the Wildcats treading water and going nowhere, Sills came in and scored eight points in just over three minutes, helping erase an early deficit and putting K-state up 25-20 with his second 3-pointer.

Sills came in averaging 8.9 points and 3.0 assists and finished with 10 points and four rebounds.

"Des is a starter, that's what he is," Tang said. "Cam (Carter) hasn't done anything to lose the starting position, Nae'Qwan hasn't done anything to lose the starting position. If I could start six guys I would start six guys.

"My goal is not to have someone excited about hearing their name called and stuff. I want to have them do it at the end of the game when it's winning time, and he's going to be on the floor at the end of the floor when it's winning time."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State men's basketball edges Radford 73-65