GREENSBORO, N.C.– A ninth championship game and an 18th Last 4 for Kentucky are on hold for another season.
The Wildcats’ 2022-23 project ended Sunday afternoon at Greensboro Coliseum, dropped by Kansas State 75-69 in the 2nd round of the NCAA Competition
It brought an end to an underachieving season for UK (22-12), which began the year as a top-five team and the odds-on preferred to win the SEC– with the return of ruling consentaneous gamer of the year Oscar Tshiebwe, skilled complementary pieces around him and another excellent recruiting class.
However things never ever came together for this group, which fought injuries all season and suffered spectacular losses– to South Carolina in your home and at Georgia– along the method.
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It’s yet another frustrating early exit for Kentucky.
Last season, it lost to Saint Peter’s in a 15-over-2 upset in the preliminary. And UK stopped working to get approved for the Huge Dance throughout the 2020-21 season. The last time Kentucky appeared in the Sugary food 16 was 2019. (The NCAA Competition was canceled in 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.)
Kansas State (25-9) started 2022-23 at the opposite end of the spectrum– led by a first-year coach, selected to complete last in the 10-team Huge 12– however showed to be the much better club Sunday.
K-State warded off salvo after salvo from Kentucky, with star Markquis Nowell publishing game-highs in points (27) and helps (9).
K-State’s triumph clinched an area in the East Area’s Sugary food 16 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday versus the winner of Sunday’s Michigan State-Marquette video game.
Nowell took the program from Tshiebwe– who completed with yet another double-double: 25 points and a game-high 18 rebounds– and freshmen Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston
Wallace, who had 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, in the 2nd half showcased his NBA skill. Livingston had 11 points and 7 rebounds, scoring 7 of his points in the last 20 minutes.
A predicted first-round choice in this year’s NBA draft, Wallace triggered UK’s 13-0 run in the opening minutes of the 2nd half, turning what had actually been a three-point deficit (29-26) into an eight-point benefit (39-31). He represented over half of Kentucky’s points throughout the run, going 3 for 3 from the field and tearing down a complimentary toss on a three-point play– which came simply after he poked the ball far from K-State and went coast to coast for a basket.
K-State didn’t flinch, however.
It advanced to the Sugary food 16 for the very first time given that 2018– when it satisfied Kentucky in Atlanta, beating UK for the very first time ever to clinch an area in the Elite 8.
Kentucky routed at the half, 29-26, in spite of K-State missing out on all 12 3-pointers it tried in the opening 20 minutes.
However UK had a hard time tremendously on offense in the last 5:22 of the half. It linked on simply among its last 10 basket, with a streak of 9 straight errant efforts. The dry spell lastly ended when Tshiebwe got his own miss out on in traffic and tossed down an emphatic dunk while being fouled. After he made the subsequent complimentary toss, Kentucky led 26-25.
K-State ended on a 4-0 run, with Nowell playing a starring function in both pails: on the very first, he drove to the basket and laid it in to provide his group a 27-26 lead. And with simply 3 seconds staying, Nowell had a no-look, razzle-dazzle help for an alley-oop finished with a thunderous slam from Tomlin.
Sunday marked K-State’s 2nd straight triumph versus Kentucky. Prior to Kansas State’s Sugary food 16 win in 2018, UK had actually won the very first 9 conferences in between the 2 schools.
This story will be upgraded.
Reach Kentucky males’s basketball and football press reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @RyanABlack.