The rivalry between K-State and Nebraska was renewed for the second year in a row with this year’s rendition taking place in Kansas City, MO at the T-Mobile Center. Kansas State was able to pick up a win with Saturday night’s game being a decisive 71-56 victory.

The Cats got off to a bit of a sloppy start with some turnovers, but they were able to get stops and stay up the whole first half.

Senior Keyontae Johnson continued to stay hot and heated up in the middle portion of the first half getting 11 points after 20 minutes of action.

The Wildcats kept up their flashy offense with alley-oops. Whatever K-State was doing on the offense, Nebraska didn’t have an answer. The Cats had a healthy 39-26 lead at the break.

Keyontae kept it up to start the second half en route to one of his best performances of the season. The rest of the team didn’t look great offensively, but they were still able to keep Nebraska at bay.

Junior Nae’qwan Tomlin stepped up to the plate in the middle of the second half to keep the Wildcats lead to a healthy amount by making some shots inside and from the perimeter.

However, K-State’s offense stalled just before the under four-minute TV timeout, and the Huskers went on a 7-0 run to get the lead down to nine with the momentum on their side.

Right out of the break, Tomlin nailed a big-time three to snap their scoreless stint. Nebraska had a couple of open looks, but missed their opportunities, including a three-pointer that was rejected from behind by junior David N’Guessan.  K-State was able to make their free throws to deny Nebraska’s comeback.

Keyontae finished with a double-double with 23 points and ten rebounds. He made nine of his thirteen field goal attempts. Tomlin added 15 points shooting 6-for-10 from the floor. Senior Markquis Nowell ended up with 11 points and seven assists, and sophomore Cam Carter scored ten points despite shooting just 3-for-10 from the floor.

With the win, K-State improves to 10-1 for the season. Their next game will be in Manhattan this upcoming Wednesday against the University of Radford for their final non-conference game before Big 12 play begins. The Wildcats got just 11 combined non-conference wins in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.