MANHATTAN, Kan. — Tylor Perry scored eight of his 26 points in overtime and Kansas State beat No. 4 Kansas 75-70 on Monday night in the 300th matchup of their heated rivalry.
“It was a fun environment to be in,” Perry said. “Our fans did a very good job of packing it in and setting the mood for the game. Kansas is obviously a very good basketball team. Everybody was excited to play. I feel that we went out there, we did what we had to do in order to get the win.”
Perry’s 3-pointer with 1:54 left gave the Wildcats a 70-66 lead. Hunter Dickinson‘s basket trimmed it to 70-68, but Perry’s two free throws extended the margin back to four.
Dajuan Harris Jr. cut it to 72-70 with two free throws before Kevin McCullar Jr. missed the front end of a 1-and-1 for Kansas with 22 seconds remaining. Arthur Kaluma sank a pair of foul shots and Perry added another one to seal it, ending Kansas State’s four-game losing streak.
“I thought that they were the more athletic and explosive team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I thought we showed stretches where we were as well. But the bottom line is, it comes down to making free throws.”
Kansas State is 6-0 in overtime this season, and 11-0 in coach Jerome Tang’s two seasons in Manhattan.
“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.”
Cam Carter had 19 points and 11 rebounds for K-State (15-8, 5-5 Big 12). Kaluma added 13 points and eight boards.
Dickinson had 21 points and 12 rebounds to pace Kansas (18-5, 6-4). Harris and McCullar each added 15 points, and KJ Adams Jr. scored 13.
Kansas scored the first nine points of the second half to open its largest lead at 41-30. But the Wildcats scored the next 11, capped by a three-point play from Carter.
“I thought our guys did a great job,” Tang said of his team’s response. “(Perry) had an 8-0 run on his own. But the guys locked back in. The fact that we were able to make it a ballgame again and put some score pressure on them helped us.”
Perry hit three free throws with 4:49 left in regulation to give K-State a three-point lead. Dickinson scored inside, but Carter answered from long range to give the Wildcats a 58-54 lead.
Harris hit a layup to tie it with 2:14 left, and McCullar’s layup gave Kansas a 62-60 lead with 1:47 to go. Perry tied it again with a layup.
Kaluma’s putback with 23 seconds remaining was answered by Adams’ bucket with 14.2 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“I thought we had it,” Harris said. “I remember two years ago when we came back in overtime. I’ve been there, Coach has been there before. I just thought we had the game, but they can compete, too, you know.”
Kansas State hit five 3-pointers in the first half but went into the locker room trailing 32-30.