Three takeaways from Kansas State basketball's disappointing night in Lubbock
LUBBOCK, Texas — Kansas State kept grinding against Texas Tech, but in the end the Wildcats simply couldn't get out of their own way.
The No. 11-ranked Wildcats, looking to break a three-game Big 12 road losing streak against last-place Tech, instead imploded down the stretch and fell, 71-63, at United Supermarkets Arena.
It was just the second conference victory for Texas Tech, which closed the game with a 9-2 run. The Red Raiders improved to 13-12 overall and 2-10 in the Big 12.
K-State fell to 19-6 with a 7-5 conference mark, dropping into a three-tie for fourth place with Iowa State and Oklahoma State, two games behind league leader Texas and one behind Kansas and Baylor.
De'Vion Harmon led four players in double figures with 20 points for Texas Tech, with Lamar Washington adding 13, Jaylon Tyson 11 and Kevin Obanor 10. The Red Raiders closed
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Markquis Nowell had 18 points, four assists and four steals for K-State, but also turned the ball over seven times. Desi Sills came off the bench to score 12 points and Nae'Qwan Tomlin pitched in with 10, plus seven rebounds.
K-State faces another road game Tuesday against Oklahoma.
Here are three Wildcat takeaways from an opportunity lost:
Turnovers continue to haunt Wildcats
Turnovers, a recurring theme for much of the season, continued to plague K-State against Texas Tech. The Wildcats lost the ball 23 times to be exact, leading to 28 Red Raider points.
"I feel like we did it to ourselves," said Nowell, who had seven of the turnovers.
It was bad enough that they turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and trailed 33-26 as a result. The nine in the second period were even more costly.
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Twice in the last eight minutes, K-State had the ball while trailing by one point, only to cough it up. The last one, which turned out to be a backbreaker, came with less than two minutes left and Tech up, 62-61, when Keyontae Johnson fumbled away a pass from Nowell in the post.
That triggered a decisive six-point Raider run to ice it.
"I'm going to have to go back and look at what the turnovers were, but we play the same style of defense (as Tech), and we understand how they rotate," K-State coach Jerome Tang said of the turnovers. "It's just about being mentally and physically tough, and delivering passes with two people on you.
"We work on it, and it just didn't get done tonight."
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A rare off night for Keyontae Johnson
Even on an off night, K-State could count on Keyontae Johnson for offense. That is until he failed to reach double digits for the first time all season against Texas Tech.
Johnson, who came in averaging 18 points, nearly 19 in conference play, not only was held to nine points on 3 of 11 shooting, but he turned the ball over five times. He did grab a game-high eight rebounds, but on a night when they shot a dismal 35.2% as a team, the Wildcats needed more.
"Every now and then you have a bad night," Tang said. "He just picked a bad night to have a bad night."
Johnson certainly wasn't alone. While Nowell scored 18 points, it took him 19 shot attempts to get there, and he was 1-for-10 from 3-point range. Starting guard Cam Carter did not score in 18 minutes, nor did forward David N'Guessan in his 17 minutes on the floor.
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Another bump in the road for K-State
After impressively winning its first two Big 12 road games at Texas and Baylor, K-State has fallen on hard times away from Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats set a school scoring record in their 116-103 victory against the Longhorns in Austin, and outlasted the Bears, 97-95, in overtime in Waco.
But Tang knew that kind of offensive production was too good to last.
"We outscored those teams, and that's an anomaly," he said. "That's not going to happen in this league. Your defense has to travel.
"We're not going to shoot like that all the time. I did feel we played better defense today than we had in the past, but there is no defense for live-ball turnovers. That was the difference in the ballgame, and that had nothing to do with our defense. That had a whole lot to do with our offense."
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: Three takeaways from Kansas State men's basketball loss to Texas Tech
