The Kansas State men used a late explosion to put away a pesky Western Illinois team and win their season opener, 82-55.
Barry Brown led all scorers with 17 points, while Wesley Iwundu and freshman Xavier Sneed added 17 apiece. It took a while for the Wildcats to build a nice lead, and even once they did, the Leathernecks refused to go away.
WIU pulled within 57-49 with 7:51 to play, but it was all Wildcats from that point. K-State scored 25 of the game’s final 31 points.
“I thought we grew up a little bit as a team,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We probably could have stretched out the lead a little more in the first half, but we had a lot of people who did well.”
K-State (1-0) led 35-21 at halftime despite shooting 32 percent. The finished the game at 44 percent thanks to a much improved effort in the second half, when the Wildcats made 15 of 24 field goals.
Kamau Stokes added 11 points and five assists for K-State in his first regular-season action since suffering a knee injury last season. D.J. Johnson scored seven points and led all players with 12 rebounds.
The Wildcats made all seven attempts from three-point range in the second half, and finished 10 of 14 for the game. Sneed was responsible for four of those, including a four-point play that put his team ahead by 25 with 2:20 to go.
“He was in a zone tonight,” Weber said. “He’s better in games than he is in practice. He was active and efficient tonight.
“I wouldn’t say one guy won us the game, because we had four or five guys who did a nice job, but he played really well.”
K-State will return to action next Tuesday evening when it hosts Omaha.
GOTH’S 23 POINTS PACE K-STATE WOMEN IN ROUT
The Wildcat women overcame a slow start and buried Chicago State, 83-33, in their season opener. Sophomore Kayla Goth took control of the game almost single-handedly, scoring 23 points to lead all players.
K-State (1-0) made eight of its last 15 three-pointers in the contest after a chilly, 0-for-5 start. The Wildcats led just 11-5 after the first quarter, but outscored CSU 72-28 after that point. The Cougars shot just 18 percent from the field and made just one of their 17 attempts from long range.
Goth was joined by three other Wildcats in double figures, including freshman Peyton Williams, who recorded 15 points and 15 rebounds. She was the first Wildcat to log a double-double in her debut since Kendra Wecker in 2001.
K-State will face Tulsa on Monday night.
