IOWA CITY, Iowa — Kansas State saw its season come to an end Tuesday, falling at Iowa in the opening round of the NIT 91-82.
The Wildcats end their season with a 19-15 record.
“We always kept fighting,” senior forward David N’Guessan said. “Eventually we came up short, but I feel like we gave great effort. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we wanted, but I’m proud still.”
The Wildcats got themselves in a 10-point hole early and never found a way to dig their way out of it, as the 3-point and free throw shooting of the Hawkeyes managed to back K-State’s comeback attempts down before they were complete.
Dai Dai Ames had a career night, putting up 16 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
“It was good to see Dai Dai not only score, but also to have five assists and just two turnovers,” head coach Jerome Tang said. “That’s what you want from your point guard. We want to try and get his (assists to turnovers) to 3-to-1. He’s a tough kid. I really like our young fellas.”
Will McNair had 15 points, Cam Carter had 13 and N’Guessan had 12.
Both teams ended up shooting 48% from the floor, but a 21% edge (11-of-23 for the Hawkeyes and 8-of-30 for K-State) from beyond the arc for Iowa and hitting 14 more free throws made the difference.
First half blitz
The first half was disastrous for K-State.
The Wildcats were shot out of the gym, led by Hawkeye star Payton Sandfort who had 22 of his 30 points in the first 20 minutes, including hitting his first five shots of the night from 3.
Sandfort also had a game-high 12 rebounds.
“(Sandfort) was at the top of the scouting report, had a big picture of him, in fact our coach who did the scout referred to him as their Caitlin Clark,” Tang said. “I don’t know that he could have given a better description. We had to find this young fella, and somehow, we lost him, and he got going. And when you let a good player see it go in, the basket just gets big. Credit to him.”
The Hawkeyes (19-14) were 50% from the floor and behind the arc as they outpaced the Wildcats, who only hit 44% of their shots, including a 22% mark from beyond the arc.
One highlight from the first half was freshman forward Macaleab Rich, who had all seven of his points in the first half.
Second half fight
K-State stormed out of the half on a 10-0 run, highlighted by two Ames 3-pointers, and cut the Hawkeye lead down to three.
But Iowa stormed back, jumping out to that 13-point lead on a 9-0 run, including two free throws on an odd flagrant foul called on Kaluma.
Then it was K-State’s time to answer back, rattling off seven in a row and cutting the lead to two possessions twice.
Hawkeye forward Ben Krikke had a big second half and was a key part of keeping K-State from fully completing the comeback, scoring 21 of his 24 points in the second half as the Wildcats zoned in on Sandfort.
A final push from Iowa to bury the Wildcats came on a 9-3 run before 3s from Krikke and Sandfort put the game away.
What’s next
The focus for the Wildcats now shifts to the offseason. The transfer portal officially opened on Monday and K-State is expected to pull in a handful of new players for next season along with their lone high-school signee in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, four-star guard David Castillo.
But in addition to that, in the coming weeks, Tang and his staff will be sitting down with the players who are eligible to return for next season, individually evaluating the past year and mapping out what they feel like their future holds.
Tang has stated publicly that he and his staff have been recruiting N’Guessan to return for his COVID year, but it’s not clear how many of the other nine returning scholarship players will be sticking around Manhattan for another season, either by their choice or the coaches.
When asked after the game if there was a desire among the coaches for all of the eligible players on this year’s roster to return for next season, Tang politely declined to answer.
“I think that’s something for me and my staff to talk about and discuss,” Tang said.
