Manhattan ? Searching for something positive to take out of Kansas State’s 78-59 victory over Colorado, Bob Huggins came up with this.
“It’s a win,” said the Wildcats coach. “It’s a Big 12 win.”
Otherwise, Huggins had little good to say about the victory that gave his first Kansas State team an 18-7 overall record and kept it tied with Texas for third place in the Big 12 at 7-3.
He did like his team’s defense at the beginning of the second half when Cartier Martin scored 10 of KSU’s first 11 points and helped the Wildcats seize what turned out to be an overwhelming 50-31 lead over the Buffs, who lost their 10th straight Big 12 road game.
“I thought it was really good at the beginning of the second half,” Huggins said. “We just had too many lapses. I thought for a while that they were starting to cut those lapses.”
Martin, criticized after scoring only 11 points in a 97-70 loss to No. 9 Kansas on Wednesday, hit two three-pointers and a short jumper and alertly tipped the ball into the bucket off David Hoskins’ missed free throw in the early run. Hoskins capped the 13-5 spree with a jumper than made it 50-29.
Martin finished with 25 points and rose to No. 7 on Kansas State’s career scoring list.
“Right now I’m just trying to help take the team as far as we can go,” said the 6-foot-7 senior. “Later on, when I’m done playing, (scoring records) will mean a lot to me.”
Kansas State, whose seven-game winning streak was snapped by Kansas Wednesday, has never finished higher than seventh in the Big 12. And its overall record is the best after 25 games since 1987-88.
Nevertheless, Huggins remains unhappy.
“I tried to explain to them, as you kind of start to weed out the other teams, now you’re playing better and better teams and what happens is you can’t miss the wide-open two-footers that we continue to miss,” he said. “You’re not going to get very many of them to start with. And then you can’t miss wide-open shots.”
Colorado fell behind for good when Akeem Wright’s 6-footer made it 9-7. The Buffs were coming off their best game of season, a 89-77 victory over No. 17 Oklahoma State. But they committed turnovers on seven straight possessions during Kansas State’s run opening the second half and wound up with 23.
In a ceremony at halftime, Kansas State retired the jerseys of two of the greatest players in school history, Dick Knostman and Rolando Blackman. Knostman played from 1951-53 and Blackman was a four-year starter and Big Eight player of the year in 1981 as a senior.
