MANHATTAN, Kan. (KXAN) — Down by as much as 14 points in the first half, the No. 10 Texas Longhorns mounted a huge comeback in the second half on the road to beat No. 7 Kansas State 69-66 at Bramlage Coliseum.
Forward Christian Bishop came alive to charge up the Longhorns by scoring all 14 of his points in the second half, and he grabbed six rebounds in the half as well. Tyrese Hunter scored all of 10 of his points in the second half also to help the Longhorns recover from a dreadful 7-of-23 shooting performance in the first half. Texas ended the game shooting 23-for-51 from the field and just 4-for-16 from 3-point range.
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Kansas State had frontcourt possession out of a timeout with 0:05 remaining, but Ismael Massoud’s fallway 3-pointer from the left wing was short of the rim and fell into the arms of Marcus Carr as the final horn blared.
Trailing 11 at halftime 36-25, Texas quickly closed the gap and took the lead on a Bishop bucket with 12:05 left in the game. It was the first time Texas led in the game since 16:36 in the first half.
Jabari Rice hit a 3-pointer with 10:51 left and the Longhorns held on to the lead until the 1:01 mark following a Markquis Nowell floater in the paint to make it 66-65 Wildcats. Bishop came through with another clutch bucket with 0:37 left to give the Longhorns the lead for good. Rice sealed the game with a pair of foul shots with 0:09 remaining.
Five Longhorns scored in double figures with Bishop and Rice leading the way with 14 points each. Rice hit a pair of 3-pointers and continued his strong foul shooting, connecting on 8-of-9 attempts. He also notched a double-double with 10 rebounds. Timmy Allen, Marcus Carr and Hunter all chipped in 10 points as the Longhorns outscored the Wildcats 44-30 in the second half.
The Longhorns turned the ball over 11 times in the first half but took better care of it in the second half with six. Texas managed to create more turnovers, forcing the Wildcats into 19 by the game’s end. Texas scored on 33 of its 69 possessions while Kansas State scored on 30 of 69 possessions.
Kansas State outrebounded Texas 31-30 and the Longhorns made three more foul shots than the Wildcats 19-16. Texas had 33 points come from its bench to Kansas State’s 22 and the Longhorns dished out 16 assists to Kansas State’s 11.
For Kansas State, Keyonte Johnson led all scorers with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Desi Sills had 11 points and Nowell ended with 10 for the Wildcats.
With Iowa State’s 68-53 win over Kansas, the Longhorns are all alone in first place in the Big 12 Conference at 8-2. Texas moves to 19-4 overall and 4-2 in true road games with the win. The Longhorns have just one day on its Kansas road trip to prepare for the Jayhawks. They’ll tip off from Allen Fieldhouse at 8 p.m. Monday.