You can call him Phineas Atchison or you can call him Tony Atchison.
By whatever name, Atchison accomplished something on Saturday afternoon rarely seen in a college basketball game.
Atchison, a 6-foot-1 junior guard at Kansas State, outscored KSU’s entire starting lineup in Kansas’ 92-66 romp over the Wildcats in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Coming in off the bench, I didn’t expect that of him,” KSU guard Larry Reid said of Atchison. “He’d been kind of down last game. But he showed he could play. He helped us out.”
Atchison scored a career-high 28 points. K-State’s starters scored 24. Atchison, a transfer from Central Florida CC, had tallied seven points in K-State’s previous game, a 64-63 loss to Oklahoma.
Still, Atchison came in as the ‘Cats’ overall leading scorer at 12.9 points a game even though he hasn’t started a game since early December.
On Saturday, Atchison played only 15 minutes in the first half, yet scored 19 points.
“He was awfully good in the first half,” Wooldridge said. “He was the answer to what we didn’t do defensively.”
In the second half, Atchison played 17 minutes and scored nine points.
“He did run out of juice,” Wooldridge said. “Thirty-two minutes. That’s too many for him. But with his offense, we had to leave him in.”
Early on, Atchison was pumped.
“I like a big crowd,” he said. “I think it motivates our team. Those boos kind of helped us get motivated.”
Does Atchison prefer to come off the bench?
“I don’t know it seems to be that way,” he replied. “But it doesn’t matter.”
Nor does it concern him what moniker you put in front of his surname.
“My first name is Phineas,” he noted, “but I’ve been called Tony because my middle name is Anthony. It doesn’t matter to me.”
K-State’s only other player in double figures was 6-7 forward Travis Reynolds. He, too, came off the bench and scored 10. The Junction City product also retrieved a career-high 16 rebounds.
“Reynolds WAS our inside guy,” Wooldridge said with a slight grin. “Let’s face it.”
Despite the lack of production from his starters, Wooldridge thought lack of defense was K-State’s biggest bugaboo.
“We didn’t get back down the floor. We really did a poor job of defensive transition,” Wooldridge said. “That led to layups that opened the floodgates. Then they used the three-point shot as a weapon, and we had no answer for that.”
Kansas drilled seven three-pointers during a 53-point first half, but had only two in a 39-point second half.
Kansas State has now dropped 20 straight games to its geographic rival, but Wooldridge, who succeeded Tom Asbury, is 0-1 against the Jayhawks after his first game in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Probably every coach who comes in here says the same thing. It’s a great college environment,” the first-year coach said. “I wish we’d have played better in that environment.”
At the same time, he realized the Wildcats had lost to a superior team.
“Kansas is very strong. It’s hard to find a weakness. They know what it takes to win,” Wooldridge said. “Everyone gives them their best shot and they’re able to handle it.”
K-State dipped to 2-4 in the Big 12 and 8-9 overall.
Three-point goals: 4-9 (Atchison 3-6, Reid 1-3). Assists: 11 (Reid 5, Buchanan 3, Terry, Reynolds, Atchison). Turnovers: 21 (Terry 5, Atchison 5, Reid 3, Buchanan 2, Siebrandt 2, Reynolds, Sulic, team). Blocked shots: 3 (Howell 3). Steals: 7 (Terry 4, Howell 2, Reid). |
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Three-point goals: 9-20 (Hinrich 4-6, Boschee 4-9, Zerbe 1-1, Axtell 0-2, Ballard 0-2). Assists: 23 (Hinrich 6, Boschee 5, Collison 4, Gregory 3, Kinsey, Nash, Harrison, Axtell, Chenowith). Turnovers: 13 (Collison 4, Gooden 3, Boschee 3, Hinrich 2, Axtell). Blocked shots: 4 (Chenowith 2, Collison, Kappelmann). Steals: 12 (Collison 4, Hinrich 4, Nash 2, Gregory, Ballard). |