‘They kicked our butts’: Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang doesn’t sugarcoat loss

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Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang didn’t mince words in assessing his Wildcats’ performance Saturday night against Brigham Young.

Basically, he said, the Wildcats got pushed around.

“They kicked our butts tonight,” Tang said after BYU ended K-State’s six-game winning streak with a decisive 80-65 victory at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. “They were a better team, they were a more physical team (and) they were a more assertive team.

“They were just all-around better than we were tonight, and they get all the credit for that win.”

With the loss, K-State slipped to 13-12 overall and back to .500 in the Big 12 at 7-7. BYU, which like the Wildcats are fighting to remain in NCAA Tournament contention, improved to 17-8, 8-6 in the league.

“I feel like they were just more ready than us,” said K-State point guard Dug McDaniel, who led all scorers with 22 points. “I feel like we needed that game to humble ourselves. I feel like it was a learning experience.

“But from the jump, it felt like they just wanted it more than us.”

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Kansas State guard Dug McDaniel brings the ball up the court against BYU on Saturday night at Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.

BYU set the tone early against K-State and had an answer for the Wildcats’ only serious threat to get back in the game in the second half.

The Cougars led for all but 23 seconds and broke the game open with a 15-2 run midway through the first period. And they did it by pounding the ball inside to burly forwards Keba Keita and Fousseyni Traore.

Traore came off the bench to score 10 of his 11 points on 3-for-3 shooting and four free throws in the first half as BYU led 40-22 at intermission. Seven of Keita’s nine points and eight of his 11 rebounds also came before the break.

“They have the number one in the conference in 3-point attempts and…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kicked-butts-kansas-state-basketball-144858032.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-16 14:48:00

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