Nae’Qwan Tomlin scored a season-high 26 points and Kansas State used a strong second half to pull away from Radford for a 73-65 victory Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan, Kan.
Tomlin made 11 of 18 shots and finished a rebound shy of a double-double as the Wildcats shot 59.3 percent (16 of 27) from the field in the second half.
Kansas State (11-1) also got 16 points from Keyontae Johnson, and 10 each from Markquis Nowell and Desi Sills. Johnson, a Florida transfer, scored his 1,000th career point with a free throw with 20.4 seconds left in the game. Nowell had a double-double with 11 assists.
Radford (6-7) lost its fourth straight game, all by single-digit margins. The Highlanders were led by Kenyon Giles with 20 points. He was joined in double figures by DaQuan Smith (12 points) and Josiah Jeffers (10).
Radford went ahead 35-34 on two Bryan Antoine free throws with 17:45 to play before K-State used an 11-0 run to take its first double-digit lead of the game at 45-35.
The Wildcats took their largest lead at 63-46 on Abayomi Iyiola’s layup with 5:53 left, but the Highlanders fought back to within 71-65 in the final minute before running out of time.
Kansas State shot 49.2 percent for the game and built a 41-27 rebounding advantage.
Neither team grabbed control in the first half. The Highlanders jumped out to an early 8-3 lead, but K-State managed to take a two-possession lead with a 17-7 run. Radford regained the lead, but handed it back to K-State, whose largest lead was 31-23 thanks to a 9-0 run. There were seven lead changes in the half, which closed with the Wildcats up 31-28.
Tomlin led the Wildcats with 11 points in the first half and added five offensive rebounds. Sills, who was 2-of-3 from long range, added eight points.
–Field Level Media