By STEVE REED (AP Sports Writer)
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Markquis Nowell had 17 factors and 14 assists and No. 3 seed Kansas State held off 14th-seeded Montana State 77-65 Friday evening for its first NCAA Tournament win since knocking off Kentucky in 2018 to achieve the Elite Eight.
Now the 2 Wildcat applications will meet once more in a rematch on Sunday within the second spherical of the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky, the sixth seed, defeated No. 11 Providence 61-53 within the earlier recreation.
Kentucky followers packed the Greensboro Coliseum for the primary recreation, and they’re probably to offer a home-court benefit of types.
But first-year Kansas State coach Jerome Tang isn’t anticipated to be intimidated. Tang was an assistant coach on the Baylor workers that ended Kentucky’s 55-game win streak at Rupp Arena in 2012. The Bears additionally beat Kentucky in two impartial web site video games, and he feels Ok-State may have loads of help.
“I understand how the Cats travel, but our Cats travel, too,” Tang mentioned.
Nowell and fellow third-team Associated Press All-American Keyontae Johnson, who had 18 factors and eight rebounds, proved an excessive amount of for the Bobcats to deal with. Nowell’s used his quickness to create photographs for himself and his teammates and Montana State didn’t have anybody bodily sufficient to protect Johnson.
“We don’t have too many guys like that in our league,” Montana State coach Danny Sprinkle mentioned.
RaeQuan Battle had 26 factors on 9 of 17 taking pictures for Montana State (25-10), which had its eight-game win steak snapped.
Montana State merely didn’t have the dimensions to hold with Kansas State, who outscored the Bobcats 48-30 within the paint.
“It’s a big emphasis on getting to the paint,” Johnson mentioned. “When you get to the paint, it draws so much attention, and we have dynamic players, dynamic guards that can get to the paint and create for each other. You just saw it today. When we play together and for each other, we’re a really good team.”
Kansas State (24-9) led Montana State 34-28 on the break, and the Wildcats stretched the result in 13 with 11 minutes remaining when Desi Sills scoring on a layup off an inbounds move below his personal basket after a botched defensive task.
Montana State went to a 1-3-1 protection, which disrupted the Wildcats for a short while and helped minimize the result in eight earlier than Nowell buried a deep 3-pointer from the left wing and Nae’Qwan Tomlin scored off a lob to push the lead again to 13.
Montana State wouldn’t give up although, with Darius Brown flattening a 3 with 2:44 left.
But Tomlin, who completed with 13 factors, answered with one other dunk off after Nowell threaded the needle together with his 14th help, tying a private profession finest and establishing a file for essentially the most ever by a Kansas State participant in an NCAA Tournament recreation.
“I have to give credit to my teammates for getting open and finishing the plays,” Nowell mentioned. “It was just a well-executed ball game and game plan that the coaching staff came up with, and the players, we executed it. I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates.”
David N’Guessan added two two technical foul free throws after which scored on an inside layup. Sills punctuated the win with a breakaway left-handed dunk giving the Wildcats a 16-point lead.
BIG PICTURE
Montana State: The Bobcats have been searching for a greater exhibiting after shedding by 35 factors within the opening spherical of final yr’s event to Texas Tech they usually bought it. The Big Sky champions confirmed they will compete on the NCAA Tournament stage however in the long run didn’t have the dimensions to compete with the Wildcats. “We just kept battling back and battling back and battling back. We couldn’t get over that hump tonight,” Sprinkle mentioned.
Kansas State: The Wildcats had some issues coming into the event after back-to-back losses to West Virginia and TCU. It was a wrestle at occasions, however the Wildcats completed with a flurry to seal the win.
UP NEXT
Kansas State beat Kentucky 61-58 on March 22, 2018, for its first win over these Wildcats in 10 tries.
___
Follow Steve Reed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SteveReedAP
___
AP March Madness protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
Source: www.bostonherald.com
