Big 12 Saturday Hoops Roundup

Iowa State 73, No. 11 Kansas State 67

AMES, Iowa — The worst week of Kansas State’s season is over.

Fortunately for the Wildcats, they still have plenty of time to prove they’ll be a factor in the Big 12.

Will Clyburn had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Iowa State beat No. 11 Kansas State 73-67 on Saturday to hand the Wildcats their second straight loss after a 15-2 start.

Freshman Georges Niang added 15 points for the Cyclones (14-5, 4-2 Big 12), who beat a ranked opponent for the first time this season.

“Now we had a reality smack,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. “We’ve got to get back to where we were and do the things that we did well to give us a chance.”

Kansas State did just that in the second half, shooting 64 percent and answering basket after basket by Iowa State.

The Wildcats simply ran out of chances.

Rodney McGruder broke free for a dunk to get the Wildcats within 70-67 with 48.5 seconds left, but Korie Lucious answered with a layup to make it a two-score game with 20 seconds to go.

Will Spradlin had 15 points and McGruder scored 13 to lead the Wildcats (15-4, 4-2), who lost on the road for the first time in four games

“The things that made us good for most of the season is that we guarded and out-toughed and outplayed people,” Weber said, adding that Iowa State “made more determined plays when it counted.”

Kansas State’s eight-game winning streak was stopped Wednesday by No. 3 Kansas, which won 59-55 for its 23rd victory in 25 tries at Bramlage Coliseum.

The Wildcats are now on their first losing streak of the season.

No. 3 Kansas 67, Oklahoma 54

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jeff Withey made life miserable for Oklahoma in just about every way possible.

Blocked shots? The Jayhawks’ 7-footer had four of them.

Steals? Three of those, too.

He also had 13 points and nine rebounds to polish off his afternoon, helping the third-ranked Jayhawks to a 67-54 victory on Saturday, their nation-leading 17th in a row.

Withey even had an assist when he fed Travis Releford in transition for an easy basket.

“He was terrific. Jeff played great,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “The mistakes we made in the first half, he erased a lot of them, which led to points. We didn’t do much offensively at all, but we got easy baskets off his defense when we got out and ran.

Withey got out and ran, too.

Late in the game, Releford returned the favor by coming up with a steal and pushing the ball to Naadir Tharpe, who hit the 7-footer on the fast break for a dunk that helped to seal the game.

“I can think of better options than him leading the break,” Self said with a smile, “but the way we played today, he may have been as good as our guards.”

Ben McLemore added 18 points and Releford finished with 10 for Kansas (18-1, 6-0 Big 12), which struggled much of the way offensively but still won their 33rd straight at Allen Fieldhouse to match the fourth-longest home winning streak in school history.

“We just couldn’t get to a point where we could threaten them down the stretch,” said Sooners coach Lon Kruger, whose team trailed 29-21 at the break and never could trim the lead.

Romero Osby and Amath M’Baye scored 12 points each, and Steven Pledger added 10, as the Sooners (13-5, 4-2) lost their 10th straight to the Jayhawks dating to 2006.

They haven’t won at the Phog since beating then-No. 6 Kansas during the 1993 season.

Oklahoma St. 80, West Virginia 66

STILLWATER, Okla. — Freshman Phil Forte scored a career-high 26 points in his first game since switching jersey numbers, Markel Brown added 24 points and Oklahoma State rallied from 13 points down to rout West Virginia 80-66 on Saturday.

Forte, wearing No. 13, hit three 3-pointers as the Cowboys (13-5, 3-3 Big 12) wiped away their big deficit with a 19-3 burst to finish the first half, then connected on two more during an 11-4 run early in the second half that put OSU in command.

Oklahoma State’s lead stretched to 15 after an electrifying stretch that featured a three-point play off of a tip-in by Michael Cobbins, a steal and run-out slam by Marcus Smart and then Cobbins’ two-handed dunk.

The Mountaineers (9-10, 2-4) never got closer than 11 over the final 10 minutes.

Eron Harris scored 17 points to lead West Virginia and Deniz Kilicli had 12 points before fouling out.

Texas 73, Texas Tech 57

AUSTIN, Texas — Julien Lewis scored 18 points and Texas ended a five-game losing streak in the Big 12 with a 73-57 win over Texas Tech on Saturday night.

Ioannis Papapetrou scored 15 points and Demarcus Holland 11 for the Longhorns (9-10, 1-5), who got their first win since Dec. 29 and ended their worst losing streak in the Big 12 since the conference began play in the 1996-97 season.

Sheldon McClellan, Texas’ leading scorer on the season, started for the first time in five games and finished with 10 points.

Jordan Tolbert had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Texas Tech (9-9, 2-5). The Red Raiders have lost 17 in a row in Austin dating back to 1996.

Baylor 82, TCU 56

FORT WORTH, Texas — Pierre Jackson scored 20 points, Isaiah Austin added 18 playing with a sprained ankle and Baylor handed TCU its seventh straight loss, 82-56 on Saturday.

Baylor (14-5, 5-1 Big 12) won its third in a row and is off to its best start in conference since 1997-98.

Austin sprained his right ankle on the final play before halftime before returning early in the second half. The 7-foot-1 freshman had two dunks in an 18-2 run in the first half that gave the Bears a 41-17 lead.

Adrick McKinney scored 15 points and Connell Crossland chipped with 12 for TCU (9-11, 0-7).

The Horned Frogs, who are in their first season in Big 12, are 0-7 in conference play for the first time since 1978-79. The school was in the now defunct Southwest Conference at the time.