From K-State Athletics
Senior Barry Brown, Jr., paced four Wildcats in double figures with a team-high 16 points, as No. 18/17 Kansas State wrapped up its Big 12 road schedule with a 64-52 win over TCU before 6,258 fans at Schollmaier Arena on Monday night.
With the win, K-State (23-7, 13-4) remained in a first-place tie with No. 8/8 Texas Tech (25-5, 13-4 Big 12), which defeated Texas, 70-51, also on Monday with one regular season game to go on Saturday. The Wildcats also claimed their seventh Big 12 road win of the season, which is the most road wins in conference play since the 1958-59 team posted a perfect 7-0 road record in Big Eight play.
Joining Brown in double figures were fellow senior Kamau Stokes (15) and juniors Xavier Sneed (11) and Makol Mawien (10), while senior Dean Wade nearly made it five starters in double figures with 9 points. The starters were responsible for 61 of the 64 points to go with 25 of the 29 rebounds and 13 of the 15 assists.
K-State is now 12-1 this season when four or more players score in double figures.
K-State led for more than 35 minutes of Monday’s game with the lead changing just twice. Tied 23-all with just under 5 minutes to play in the first half, the Wildcats took the lead for good with a 13-4 run, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers by Stokes, to take a 36-27 lead into the half.
The hot shooting continued to start the second half, as K-State rattled off 10 consecutive points before TCU could even register a field goal to take a 46-27 advantage with 16:11 to play. The lead ballooned to 21 points on a dunk by Sneed just a few minutes later before the Horned Frogs used a 10-0 run to close the gap to 51-40 with 12:46 remaining. Mawien was able to answer with a 15-footer to extend the lead back to 13 just 30 seconds later.
TCU (18-12, 6-11 Big 12) made one last run, closing to 57-50 on a pair of free throws by junior Desmond Bane with 6 to play. However, Stokes was fouled on a 3-pointer just a few minutes later and converted on all 3 free throw attempts to push the lead back to double figures at 60-50, where it remained the rest of the game.
The Wildcats connected on 46.9 percent (23-of-49) from the field, including 31.3 (5-of-16) from 3-point range, and knocked down a season-high 92.9 percent (13-of-14) from the free throw line. The Horned Frogs, which were held to their season low in points for the second time this season by the Wildcats, hit on 41.7 percent (20-of-48) of their field goals, including 31.3 percent (5-of-16) from the beyond the arc.
TCU was led by a pair of redshirt freshmen, as Kevin Samuel scored a game-high 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting to go with a game-best 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in 31 minutes, while R.J. Nembhard had 12 points off the bench on 3-of-7 field goals and 4-of-4 free throws.
All four of the Horned Frogs double-digit scorers (Kouat Noi, Desmond Bane, Alex Robinson and J.D. Miller) were held to a combined 16 points on 26.1 percent (6-of-23) shooting.
Brown and Stokes both earned milestones in the victory, as Brown tied the school record for games played with his 135th appearance, tying the mark set by Jacob Pullen (2007-11) and Rodney McGruder (2009-13), while Stokes became just the third Wildcat to eclipse 400 career assists with his 2 dimes on the night.
