of his 20 points in a dominating first half and No. 10 Kansas State
withstood a gut check rally to knock off top-ranked Texas 71-62 on
Monday night.
Kansas State (16-2, 3-1 Big 12) smothered
Texas with its extended man-to-man defense to overcome a 1-for-12
effort from 3-point range and held on to beat a No. 1 team for the
third time in school history.
Curtis Kelly scored 17 points and freshman
Rodney McGruder chipped in 11 key points for the Wildcats, who used a
late 11-1 run to take control in their record 14th straight win at
Bramlage Coliseum.
Texas (17-1, 3-0) trailed by 14 points in the
first half, made a run early in the second, couldn’t keep it going in
its second week ever at No. 1. The loss leaves No. 2 Kentucky (18-0) as
the lone unbeaten team in Division I.
Avery Bradley had 11 points for the Longhorns,
who shot 36 percent from the field following a season-low 35 percent
against Texas A&M.
Texas had passed every test on the way to its first No. 1 ranking.
The Longhorns beat North Carolina at Cowboys
Stadium, Michigan State in Austin, and pulled out a
tougher-than-expected road win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. It
was a tough first week as the nation’s top-ranked team against Iowa
State and Texas A&M, but Texas still won both.
Monday’s game represented the Longhorns’ toughest task so far: on the road in a juiced arena against a top 10 team.
They didn’t seem ready for it.
Uncharacteristically frazzled, Texas
struggled against Kansas State’s pressure and its own indecisiveness,
shooting 10-of-33 from the field with 11 turnovers to trail by 10 at
the half.
Kansas State fans were certainly ready,
lining up outside Bramlage Coliseum hours before the game, many
sporting fake Abraham Lincoln beards — a school giveaway — and “Fear
the Beard” T-shirts in homage to the fuzzy growth under junior guard
Jacob Pullen‘s jaw line.
Pullen joined in the fun, too, trotting out to warmups with a faux Lincoln before revealing the real thing.
The Wildcats fed off the facial-fuzz energy
early, using their aggressive defense to hound the Longhorns into
turnovers and difficult shots.
Texas managed to keep it close for a little
while before Kansas State put together the kind of run the Longhorns
usually snuff out opponents with: 18-4.
Samuels was the key, slashing inside on drives and putbacks, capping the spurt with a 3-pointer that put the Wildcats up 36-22.
Of course, being the top-ranked team in the
country, Texas had an answer, scoring eight quick points in the second
half to cut a 10-point deficit to 36-34.
A back-and-forth battle followed until Kansas
State went on the 11-1 run to go up 62-52, then set off pandemonium in
the Little Apple by hitting just enough free throws down the stretch.