In preparation for Wednesday’s game at Bramlage Coliseum against Radford, K-State’s coach Jerome Tang and his staff dispatched a regular theme to their team: “Don’t go home for Christmas until this thing is over, we have to stay locked in.”
The message became easier for Wildcat players to hear when No. 14 Duke lost to Wake Forest by 11 points and previously undefeated and No. 15 Mississippi State lost to Drake. The No. 24 ranked team in the country, Marquette, lost to Providence by five points in overtime, too.
Message comprehended.
For much of the first half, K-State struggled to get separation against the Highlanders. The Wildcats would increase their lead to about 10 points only to see Radford get a basket on the ensuing possessions to get the lead reduced back to just two possessions.
The Wildcats had a six-point lead reduced to just three points at halftime after Radford buried a 3-pointer in the closing seconds before the half.
Optically, K-State, a team off to their best start in more than a decade, leading Radford, who entered Wednesday with a 6-6 record on the season, isn’t a great position to be in. Yet, Tang didn’t walk into the locker room throwing chalkboards or yelling in frustration.
“At halftime, we said, ‘Fellas, we have all of our keys. Defensive field goal percentage was where we wanted. We were outrebounding them on the offensive and defensive end. We had five turnovers. We had all of our keys. But do you know what that meant? They’re a really good team,’” Tang said following the game.
Reality sunk in for K-State in the locker room. They didn’t play particularly poorly in the first. Nae’Qwan Tomlin played 17 first-half minutes and scored 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field. He also contributed five rebounds, all of which came on the offensive glass. The JUCO product largely kept the Wildcats in control of the game for much of the first half.
“My energy,” Tomlin said of what he brought to the court on Wednesday. “Being aggressive. My teammates always tell me that I play my best when my energy is good from the tip-off through the rest of the game.”
The second half was much like the first for the first 10 minutes until Tomlin provided a shock of energy with two thunderous slam dunks. Tomlin’s first rim-rattling dunk put a Highlander on a poster under the rim after Tomlin sliced across the lane before elevating and raising his right hand to the roof of Bramlage.
“I’ve seen some pretty good ones,” Tang said. “But Nae’Qwan’s dunk, I had to lock in, Because that was pretty impressive. Drive, hesi, big step, go across the lane, on someone, that was pretty crazy…I’m always thinking to get back on defense or act like you’ve done it before. I would have told Nae’Qwan to act like he’s done it before, but I don’t know if he’s ever done that before.”
Tomlin, while watching the replay on an iPhone in the postgame media room said the poster-worthy dunk was his favorite play of the game, but his one-handed alley-oop slam from Keyontae Johnson put K-State up 13 points, was arguably a more impressive dunk because of how far back into the air he had to reach to grasp the ball with his right hand.
“He has a lot of energy and grabs everything above the rim,” K-State guard Markquis Nowell said of why Tomlin is a good dunker.
Radford shrunk the Wildcat lead down to just six points in the final minutes of the game because of some Wildcat turnovers in the final minutes of the game. Nowell had two of his season-high six turnovers in the final minutes of the game and Desi Sills was called for a traveling violation.
But the Wildcats held off the late run from Radford by strategic timeout usage from Tang and executed free throws on their way to a 73-65 victory.
“Our focus was going 1-0 and winning this game and having this Christmas and making it a Merry Christmas. Not just a regular Christmas,” Nowell said.
