After winning its second consecutive game in the state of Texas, the K-State men’s basketball team returns home to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday night.
K-State (16-7, 5-4 Big 12 Conference) is coming off a 65-60 win over the Texas A&M Aggies last Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats have won five consecutive games and their conference record is over .500 for the first time this season.
“Winning on the road in the Big 12 Conference is so hard because everyone is so good,” head coach Frank Martin said. “You just want to give yourself a chance to be able to win at the end of the game.”
During Saturday’s game, the Wildcats were led by sophomore guard Jacob Pullen with 16 points on 6-11 field goals. Pullen’s starting backcourt counterpart, junior guard Denis Clemente, scored 12 of his 14 points in the final 13 minutes of the game. K-State is now 10-0 this season when the duo of Pullen and Clemente score double-digits points.
“We feel good about our guard play,” Martin said. “They continue to get better and mature every day.”
K-State continued its stingy defensive play, holding the Aggies to just 60 points on 38.3 percent shooting, including 29.4 percent from 3-point range.
The Wildcats are still second in the Big 12 in rebounding margin and are now sixth in the conference in scoring defense.
“I’d like to think that we play hard every day,” Martin said. “That’s a staple of every team I coach.”
Texas Tech (12-11, 2-6 Big 12) enters Wednesday’s game on a high note after beating the Baylor Bears 83-76 on Saturday. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak.
The Raiders overcame a double-digit second-half deficit to Baylor to capture their 11th home win of the season.
“There is not a bad team in this league,” Martin said. “His team is finally taking on his personality, which they were unable to do last year because he took over mid-way through last year’s season.”
On Saturday, the Red Raiders had three players score in double-digits. Senior guard Alan Voskuil and sophomore guard John Roberson led the team with 18 points each. Voskuil and Roberson make up 40 percent of the total team’s scoring.
Roberson leads the team in scoring and in assists with 14.7 points per game and 6.7 assists per game.
Texas Tech is averaging 78.7 points per game on 46 percent field goal shooting.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. on Wednesday in Bramlage Coliseum. Approximately 500 unused tickets from the student allotment are still available. The general admission tickets are priced at $20 and can be purchased in person or by phone at 800-221-CATS.