KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas State thought its toughest test of the young basketball season would come against Missouri on Monday night in Kansas City.
The Wildcats are still waiting for that test.
In unexpectedly lopsided fashion, K-State routed its former Big 12 rival 66-42 at Sprint Center to reach the CBE Classic championship game.
“We really did a nice job on defense,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “I was worried about their quickness, but our guys played with a lot of pride and made things tough on them all night.”
Freshman Dean Wade continued the excellent start to his K-State career, logging his first double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Justin Edwards added 13 points, while Wesley Iwundu logged 10 points, eight rebounds and a team-high four assists.
Mizzou missed 15 of its first 17 shots and connected on just 18.5 percent from the field in the first half.
The Wildcats (4-0) didn’t put on an offensive clinic by any means, but were more than capable of slowly climbing away from their ice-cold opponents. K-State led 31-14 at halftime.
“We wanted to treat this like a home game, and we knew the atmosphere would be exciting, but part of that is staying locked in and taking the game to them,” Weber said. “I feel like we did a good job of that.”
K-State put the game away by outscoring the Tigers 14-7 in the first five minutes of the second half. The rest of the contest was essentially a formality.
Weber said he was concerned about maintaining momentum coming out of halftime, but his team shot above 50 percent for most of the second half to keep the Tigers out of it.
Mizzou never trailed by fewer than 15 points in the second half.
“We played very determined,” Weber said. “Whether it was drives to the basket, rebounding — We knew it was a matter of time before the baskets started falling.”
The Wildcats will take on the winner of No. 9 North Carolina and Northwestern at 9 p.m. Tuesday for the CBE Classic championship.
Weber said he was pleased that none of his players had to play more than 30 minutes against Missouri, which should keep their legs relatively fresh for a “step up in competition, no matter who we play.”
