Every school kid knows the capital of Virginia. Now they know the other Richmond.
Mitch Richmond, more than anybody else, ended The Streak here Saturday afternoon.
Kansas State’s 6-5 senior forward scored 35 points – 23 in the second half – as the Wildcats’ dumped Kansas, 72-61, to end the nation’s longest homecourt basketball winning streak at 55 games.
“What a great second half he had,” said K-State coach Lonnie Kruger.
“We know who to go to when we need a big bucket,” said KSU center Charles Bledsoe.
Or a big free throw. Richmond was 10 of 10 at the foul line with eight of those charities coming in the last minute and a half when Kansas was forced to foul.
“We had the ball in Mitch’s hands, and that’s a good place to have it,” smiled K-State point guard Steve Henson.
Afterward, surrounded by the media, Richmond grinned when somebody asked him if he thought he had a chance at Big Eight player of the year.
“The season is still a long way from being over,” he said, “but I think I took a step in that direction.”
In truth, Richmond didn’t shoot that well from the floor – he missed 13 of 24 shots – but he was three of four from three-point range, and treys were what it was all about Saturday.
K-State made nine of 12 long-rangers – the ‘Cats made all six they launched in the second half – including four of six by guard Will Scott, while the Jayhawks connected on just four of 16 three-pointers.
“That was a big part of our win,” Richmond stressed. “It had a lot of effect.”
And why were those triplets dropping?
“I have no idea,” Richmond laughed. “It was just going in.”
Fate? Maybe so because it wasn’t like the ‘Cats were unguarded – Kruger said KU plays “the best man-to-man defense in the league – and wide open.
“We hit some shots that if they don’t go in, we lose,” Kruger remarked. “That’s Mitch and Will, though. We’re gonna live and die by that.”
K-State lived and the Jayhawks’ nearly four-year-old winning streak in Allen Fieldhouse and a 10-game dominance of the Wildcats died.
“It’s a special feeling,” Kruger smiled. “It’s an honor to beat them here. There’ve been a lot of good teams come through here and leave with a loss.”
One of them was last year’s K-State team. It was blitzed, 84-67.
“We came in here all pumped up last year and they just ripped us apart,” Richmond pointed out. “They just stomped us. This time we tried to come in with a better perspective, and just try not to let the game get out of reach.”
K-State succeeded in that regard early when it refused to fold after falling behind by 10 points six minutes before intermission.
“The fact we were down by 10 makes it a little bit sweeter,” said Kruger. “Kansas was controlling things with its defense, but we hung together and kept scratching and gave ourselves a chance at halftime.”
Defensively, Kansas State wasn’t bad, either. Like every other Kansas foe, they played a zone that sagged on Danny Manning and forced the Jayhawks to score from the outside.
“In the first half,” noted Henson, “the guys we wanted to have the ball were hitting ’em. Meanwhile, we were trying to keep it out of Manning’s hands, obviously.”
Manning wound up with 21 points while putting up just a dozen shots. In the meantime, starting guards Kevin Pritchard and Lincoln Minor wound up eight of 27 from the floor and 0 for 9 from three-point range.
Kansas State, now 12-4 overall, is in the Big Eight driver’s seat with a 4-0 record – three of those wins coming on the road.
“We’ve had some good bus trips home this year,” Henson confirmed. “I kind of wish this one would be a little longer.”
Henson also admitted he didn’t think the impact of what he and his teammates had done had sunk in yet.
“It means a lot,” the sophomore from McPherson said about stopping KU’s streak at a double-nickel, “but they were probably thinking about it more than we were. We had nothing to lose.
“Then we started hitting some of those threes, and I think that might have got on their minds.”
K-State’s last victory over Kansas was on Feb. 26, 1983 – a 70-63 triumph, also in Allen Fieldhouse.
