Overtime is K-State time

We made it three days before a Top 10 team lost on the road again. College basketball never misses.

Let’s dive in.

1. K-State won it OT? Sounds right.

Jerome Tang owns overtime. It’s an odd stat — and one that’ll eventually regress to the mean — but in two seasons at Kansas State, Tang has yet to lose.

No. 4 Kansas, just like last season at Bramlage, can attest to that after a 75-70 OT loss on Monday night. It’s the first time K-State’s beaten its in-state rivals in back-to-back seasons since 2014 and 2015.

“In overtime, it’s about players making plays,” Tang said. “They don’t feel the pressure. We work on it every day in practice, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily the reason. I think guys just make plays and their confidence level grows.”

Tylor Perry didn’t need overtime to make more plays. He just needed the second half. The senior guard scored a game-high 26 points, 21 of which came in the second half and OT. He hit 4 3-pointers, he hit jumpers, heck, he hit ridiculous driving layups as the shot clock was expiring.

He wasn’t the only one making plays, either. Cam Carter (19 points) hit a couple crucial 3-pointers early in the game, while K-State’s big men Jerrell Colbert, David N’Guessan and Will McNair combined for 3 blocks and nasty interior defense. Kansas was coming off a win over Houston in which it shot nearly 70% from the field, but was just 41.2% last night. There weren’t any easy shots on Monday.

Kansas coach Bill Self credited K-State as the more athletic and explosive team. That was noticeable in OT when “they scoring their last six points I think off offensive rebounds … I mean, good gracious.”

The Jayhawks (18-5, 6-4 in Big 12) led by as many as 11 in the second half, but miscues fed an 11-0 K-State run, sparked by Perry, who scored 8 by himself. The back-and-forth continued for the rest of the half, but by overtime, Kansas looked gassed.

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