Inside the boxscore: Iowa State 72, Kansas State 70

1. Kansas State entered conference play at 11-1 with their only loss a double OT affair vs West Virginia. At that point they were worrying about seeding in the NCAA Tournament. Since then they’ve gone 4-5 in the Big 12 and have lost two straight. Luckily they get home games against bottom feeders Texas A&M and Texas Tech in the next week. Then it’s make or break time, as they get Kansas at home before traveling to Baylor and Mizzou.

2. K-State is the 12th best team in the nation at getting to the line. Iowa State is the 7th best team at keeping opponents off the line. Something had to give, and K-State came out on the losing end. The Wildcats only attempted 11 FTs on 58 field goal attempts. That’s a 19% FT Rate, which is over 27 points lower than their season average. Their previous season low was 16 attempts. It’s been more than three years since K-State attempted as few as 11 FTs.

3. Kansas State isn’t a good 3-pt shooting team. They’re 205th nationally, and entered the game only making 29% of their attempts in the Big 12. They were kept in this game by 7-12 3-pt shooting (58.3%), and was only the 2nd time this season they’ve made more than half their attempts.

4. Iowa State, while limiting K-State’s trips to the line, went 26 times themselves. This isn’t unusual as Iowa State is really good at getting to the line (30th nationally) and K-State is bad about sending teams there (278th). If anyone complains about the FT discrepancy, it’s something that easily could have been predicted.

5. The final score was 72-70. Kansas State had a 7 point lead at half. In the 2nd half the Cyclones scored 43 points in just 32 possessions (1.34 per trip). Eight of those 2nd half possessions were extended with offensive rebounds, and Iowa State only turned it over five times.

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