MANHATTAN, Kan. — Kansas State must have felt good about its chances to beat ninth-ranked Baylor when they headed to overtime Tuesday night.
After all, the Wildcats have never lost with Jerome Tang on the bench when a game is tied at the end of regulation.
Arthur Kaluma helped to keep that perfect streak intact when he converted a four-point play to give them the lead with 20 seconds left, and Tylor Perry added a pair of clinching free throws with 6.9 seconds to go, as the Wildcats scored the final nine points for a 68-64 victory — their fifth overtime win of the season and 10th in the past two years.
Asked to explain the OT success, Tang replied: “Maturity, right? Some older guys. Belief. And then we work on it every day. Every single day, we work on it. It’s something our guys really take pride in.”
Baylor had the Wildcats (13-4, 3-1 Big 12) down 64-59 with just over a minute left when RJ Jones buried a 3-pointer from the corner to give them a chance. And when RayJ Dennis missed a driving layup at the other end for the Bears (14-3, 3-1), Kaluma managed to swish a 3 from the top of the key while getting fouled by Baylor freshman Ja’Kobe Walter.
“The moment it left my hand,” Kaluma said, “I knew it was good.”
After he made his free throw, Langston Love missed an open 3 that would have given Baylor the lead. Perry secured the rebound and was fouled, and his two free throws — after missing one late in regulation — put the game away.
Perry and Cam Carter finished with 18 points apiece to lead the Wildcats. Kaluma had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Love had 15 points and Jalen Bridges scored 11 to pace the Bears, who were just 5 for 28 from beyond the arc. Walter was held to eight points on 3-for-11 shooting, and Dennis managed seven on a 2-for-15 effort from the floor.
“Shots just didn’t fall tonight,” Love said.
The Bears actually led 31-26 at halftime despite the nation’s most accurate 3-point-shooting team starting 1 of 11 from the arc.
It helped that the Wildcats didn’t even get shots off on nearly half of their possessions. Carter had five turnovers by himself, the final one ruining a chance for the final shot — Baylor scored at the buzzer instead — and Kansas State had 11 as a team.
The sloppy ball-handling came after the Wildcats had 18 turnovers in their last-second loss at Texas Tech on Saturday.
The Bears also missed their first 12 shots of the second half, but just when Perry’s 3-pointer had given Kansas State a 45-42 lead, they finally got some to drop. Jayden Nunn and Bridges scored on consecutive possessions, a rarity for the game, and Baylor strung together nine straight points to regain the lead.
Kansas State answered with nine of its own moments later, and after Perry made the second of two foul shots with 14 seconds left and Nunn missed an open 3-pointer for Baylor as time expired, the game was headed to overtime.
