Recap: Kansas State vs. North Texas
Sports Network | March 18, 2010
Oklahoma City, OK (Sports Network) - Denis Clemente had 17 points and six assists as Kansas State dominated North Texas, 82-62, in the first round of the West Region of the NCAA Tournament
Curtis Kelly and Jacob Pullen each had 15 points while Dominique Sutton added 12 points and eight rebounds for the second-seeded Wildcats (27-7), who advanced to play BYU, which beat Florida in double overtime, on Saturday.
"I'm really proud of our guys," said Kansas State head coach Frank Martin. "I thought we really defended well in that first half. I thought we gave up a couple of offensive rebounds early in the game, but outside of that, I thought we really zoned in and defended and allowed us to get into broken floor. Then we went up there and converted and made some shots, made some plays, and that allowed us to kind of get away a little bit and I was proud of our guys."
Tristan Thompson had a game-high 28 points while Eric Tramiel contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Mean Green (24-9), who have lost in the first round in all three of their tournament appearances.
"I'd like to really commend our young men, our basketball team, for the type of season that they've had and really commend them for the effort that they put forth today against a great basketball team," said North Texas head coach Johnny Jones. "I thought they came out and played a valiant effort. Extremely hard in the first half. Unfortunately, a couple our post guys got in foul trouble there in the first half, had to take them out. I thought Kansas State got a little cushion, made a little run, and we couldn't recover from that run that they had there in the first half."
North Texas actually led early on as Tramiel's layup gave the team an 8-7 lead a bit over four minutes in. It was short-lived as Kelly drained a free throw a minute later and, a minute after that, Sutton put in a layup to give Kansas State a lead in never relinquished.
A 10-2 run a bit later was capped by a Sutton layup for a 30-16 lead with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Sutton had six points during the run.
Clemente hit a pair of three-balls, sandwiched by two free throws from Thompson, to close out the half and give the Wildcats a 41-25 lead after 20 minutes.
Kansas State continued to front-run in the second half and extended its lead to 26 points with a 10-0 run, finished on a Luis Colon layup, for a 64-38 lead with just over 11 minutes to play.
The Mean Green tried to get back into the game and cut their deficit to 14 as Thompson's three-ball made it a 69-55 game with 5 1/2 minutes to play.
The Wildcats, though, got consecutive baskets from Kelly, followed by a slam from Sutton and two from the line by Clemente to seal the victory.
K-State is 29-27 in this event over the years...The Mean Green had won 11 straight games coming into the contest. The team recorded a school record for wins in a single season...Kansas State has won six of the seven games against North Texas...Eleven of the 13 players on Kansas State recorded points as the team shot 50.8 percent while North Texas hit just 30.9 percent of its shots.
