Texas fails at the details in 71-64 loss to surging No. 18 Kansas State

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN – Texas hung strong until the end, but head coach Shaka Smart said it best when his Longhorns came up just short of taking down Big 12 Conference-leading Kansas State Tuesday at the Frank Erwin Center.

“For us, the details were not there when we needed them to be,” Smart said.

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Both Kansas State and Texas men’s basketball teams had something to prove when they squared off in a crucial Big 12 showdown Tuesday.

The Wildcats wanted to show that a 20-point home loss to Texas on Jan. 2 was an anomaly while the Longhorns sought to continue a winning trend that seen them capture three of their past four games and improve upon their uncanny knack of beating ranked teams at home.

For the 18th-ranked Wildcats consider their 71-64 win as a mission accomplished.

For the Longhorns, it was another close call in a game against an experienced and quality opponent that was there for them to take — in essence, another failure in a season of continued almosts.

“Our guys really wanted to win tonight, and we kept our poise and focus at the end when we could have folded,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “But Kansas State made the plays and hit some big shots down the stretch.”

Horns’ hot stretch at home halted

Details like 12 turnovers, six by senior leader Kerwin Roach II. And like 30 percent shooting in the second half against a zone defense that Kansas State resorted to to keep the Longhorns out of the paint.

And an overall 4-for-19 showing (21.1 percent) from beyond the arc, including 2 of 11 in the second half, when Texas settled for jump shots from the perimeter when it got frustrated by the Wildcats’ desperate defensive switch.

“We had the right shot in the right time a lot but we just didn’t knock them down,” Texas point guard Matt Coleman III said. “We played well, but we just didn’t do enough. Today was a detailed game, but they were better at the details than we were.”

Texas (14-11, 6-6 in Big 12 play) was led by Roach’s 17 points, with Courtney Ramey added 10 for the Longhorns. The home squad had a two-game win streak snapped and are now 6-2 in their last eight home games against AP Top 20 opponents.

“We can knock down shots, we just didn’t tonight,” Roach said. “We had to make those shots to get them out of the zone, and we didn’t. We’ve seen zone a lot – and we’ve made shots against it – but that didn’t happen tonight.”

Barry Brown Jr. and Xavier Sneed poured in 16 points each and hit key free throws in the final minute as all five of the Wildcats’ starters scored in double figures. Kansas State (19-5, 9-2 in Big 12 play) has won nine straight league games and nine of 10 overall.

Wildcats take second half

Kansas State’s nine-game winning streak is their longest in the Big 12 era and longest overall in 45 years since they captured 11 consecutive conference games from Jan. 14 to Feb. 26, 1974 in the old Big Eight Conference.

The Wildcats started the second half with a 10-3 run that netted them a 45-42 lead. Kansas State built its advantage to 67-60 on a 3-pointer by Kamau Stokes with 4:30 to play and led 68-64 with 1:26 remaining. Two free throws by Sneed and another by Brown sandwiched around consecutive turnovers by Texas allowed the Wildcats to salt away the game.

Dean Wade added 12 points for the Wildcats, while Stokes and Mawien added 11 points each for Kansas State, who is 9-1 this season when four or more players score in double figures.

The game was tied at 24 after a layup by the Wildcats’ Makol Mawien with 7:04 to play in the first half. Texas then forged a 15-7 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Ramey, to take a 39-31 advantage with 1:37 remaining before settling for a 39-35 lead at halftime.

Twenty-four of the Longhorns’ points came in the paint, as Texas had eight offensive rebounds that led to a 10-4 edge in second-chance points. Kansas State coach Bruce Weber put the kibosh on that when he went to the zone in the second half, and the Longhorns never really found their stride again.

“We wanted to fight them, and they spread us out and took advantage of the space in the first half, but we held our composure,” Weber said. “I don’t think we stopped Texas as much as we got them out of their rhythm.”

But if you are looking for Texas’ biggest supporter, you didn’t have to look past Weber.

“I think Texas is the best 14-11, 6-6 team in the country – I think they can make some real noise in the NCAAs,” Weber said. “Texas has three point guards – Roach is going to play in the NBA, Coleman is one of the most improved players in the league, and Ramey was one of the highly recruited guys in the country – and then they have (Jaxson) Hayes — what is he about 7-foot-8? They are athletic and talented.”

Now if the Longhorns can just get a grasp on those pesky details.

Texas returns to the floor on when it hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon. That’s a game the Longhorns can’t afford to lose.

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