It was a fitting Senior Day, as the trio of Barry Brown, Jr., Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade all scored in double figures to help No. 18/17 Kansas State clinch a share of the Big 12 regular season title with a 68-53 win over Oklahoma before a sold-out crowd at Bramlage Coliseum.
With the win, K-State (24-7, 14-4 Big 12) finished in a first-place tie with No. 8/8 Texas Tech (26-5, 14-4 Big 12), which defeated Iowa State, 80-73, earlier in the day, to earn the program 21st conference championship, including the 19th in the regular season, and the first since also sharing the title in 2012-13. By virtue of the tiebreaker, the Wildcats will be the No. 1 seed at next week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at the Sprint Center.
The seniors combined to score 45 of the 68 points to go with 14 of the 15 assists in their final game at Bramlage Coliseum, as Stokes scored a game-high 19 points on 7-of-15 field goals, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range, to go with a game-high 6 assists in 34 minutes. He has now scored in double figures in 5 consecutive games. He was joined in double figures by Brown, who posted 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go with 4 assists and 3 steals, and Wade, who added 11 points on 5-of-14 field goals to go with 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
K-State is now 20-6 all-time when the trio scores in double figures in the same game in their respective careers, including 8-0 this season.
In addition, the seniors each enjoyed milestones on the evening, starting with Brown, who became the school leader in games played with his 136th career appearance to break his tie with Jacob Pullen (2007-11) and Rodney McGruder (2009-13). With his 4 triples on the day, Stokes became just the fourth Wildcat to eclipse 200 career 3-point field goals, while Wade became just the 10th player in school history with top 1,500 career points.
K-State led for more than 33 minutes of Saturday’s game with the lead changing just four times, all in the first 6 minutes of play. Tied 14-all with just under 10 minutes to play in the first half, the Wildcats took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Wade en route to finishing the half on an 18-8 run and leading 32-22.
K-State opened the second half on an 8-1 run to push the lead to 42-23 at the 16:59 mark on the strength of back-to-back 3-pointers from Stokes. The Sooners were able to close the gap to 45-31 at the 13:41 mark, but the Wildcats responded with a 17-2 run over the next 6 minutes to build a 62-33 lead with just 7:12 to play.
Oklahoma erupted for 12 straight points to close to within 62-45 with 4:29 remaining, but sophomore Mike McGuirl answered with a 3-pointer off a Brown assist to push the lead back to 20 points.
K-State connected on 44.8 percent (26-of-58) from the field, including 31 percent (9-of-29) from 3-point range, while Oklahoma was held to a season-tying low of 53 points on 41.5 percent shooting (22-of-53), including 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from long range.
The Sooners were led junior Kristian Doolittle, who scored a team-high 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 36 minutes, while freshman Jamal Bieniemy had 12 points on 5-of-11 field goals, including 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, to go along with 4 assists and 2 rebounds.
