#12 K-State picked up a must-win game at home against a fleeting #19 Iowa State team by a final score of 61-55 in a low-scoring slugfest.

K-State played with low energy in the first 10 minutes of the game. Iowa State wasn’t playing great either settling on low-percentage jumpers.

The Wildcats had opportunities for points in the paint, but they weren’t able to finish. The Clones outscored them 16-6 in the paint in the first half.

Iowa State senior forward Aljaz Kunc was getting under the Cats’ skin. There was lots of bumping and shoving between him and the K-State bigs, who really struggled in the first half. K-State senior guard Desi Sills ran over him and picked up an intentional foul. Kunc proceeded to make both free throws, make the next jumper and get the next rebound while getting fouled.

He led ISU with ten points at the half and finished a team best 15 points.

Despite only giving up 31 points, K-State’s defense was poor at times giving up drives in the paint during one-on-one matchups which resulted in easy layups.

K-State went to the locker room trailing 31-23. They had three scoring droughts of two-plus minutes, shot just 30% from the floor and only 2-for-10 from beyond the arc.

Nowell’s struggles continued in the first half going 0-for-3 from the floor with just two points. Senior forward Keyontae Johnson led with eight points and senior small forward Ish Massoud had seven.

To start the second half, Nowell snapped out of his funk with a trio of threes. K-State went on a 14-3 run out of the break to take the lead going into the under-16 timeout.

Sills didn’t have a great shooting performance on Saturday, but he played great defense all day with great hustle and grit. He forced turnovers and they were able to outscore the Cyclones 13-7 on fast break points.

The Cats had a stretch of six minutes from the nine-minute mark to the three-minute mark with no field goal makes but held on to a two-point lead at the end of that stretch thanks to made free throws. Nowell broke that streak with a long three.

With :32 left up by five, Johnson made a reverse layup to ice the game.

ISU went cold down the stretch as well with their lone made field goal in the last 5:01 of the game coming with :11 left when they were already trailing by nine.

The Cyclones were without senior guard Caleb Grill from Maize, KS, which hurt their three-point shooting presence. Grill has a three-point shooting percentage of 37.7% on the season and they could have used him Saturday as ISU shot just 5-for-27 (18%) from beyond the arc.

ISU’s inability to make shots in the second half was their downfall as they shot just 21.9%. They forced K-State into 11 turnovers but scored no points on them.

KSU, meanwhile, shot 44% in the second half and 46% from beyond the arc.

Nowell shot 4-for-7 on three-pointers in the second half and 8-for-8 from the free throw line to lead the team with 20 points. He also had six rebounds and five assists.

The Milwaukee Bucks had personnel in attendance to see Johnson and he made his mark. He shot 6-for-13 from the field and contributed 15 points and six rebounds.

After the game head coach Jerome Tang was asked about his thoughts following the win in which he replied, “We needed it.”

With the victory, they avoid the season sweep against Iowa State and improve to 8-6 in Big 12 play. They also get their 20th victory of the regular season (20-7) which gives them their first 20-win season since their 2018-19 team which won a share of the regular season Big 12 title.

Another game with monstrous implications for K-State comes on Tuesday night against #9 Baylor.