Kansas State and Arizona State will each attempt to win their first Big 12 game of the season when the teams meet Saturday at Tempe, Ariz.
Both teams enter 9-6 overall and 0-2 in conference play, and they are coming off losses by similar scores against ranked teams on the road Wednesday.
Kansas State soundly lost 101-76 at No. 1 Arizona, and Arizona State was routed 104-76 at No. 9 BYU.
The Wildcats have lost two consecutive games while the Sun Devils are on a four-game losing streak.
Kansas State struggled from 3-point range (22.2%) and shot a season-low 33.8% (26 of 77) from the floor against Arizona. The Wildcats were 3 of 21 (14.3%) from beyond the arc in a loss against visiting BYU last Saturday.
In addition to struggling on the perimeter, Kansas State was overwhelmed inside by Arizona. The Wildcats were outrebounded 55-32 and were outscored 56-36 in the paint.
“The great thing about this league, we’ve played one team with a ‘10′ in front of their name (BYU), and now we played one with a ‘1′ in front of their name (Arizona),” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said. “Got a whole line of others to go compete against and excited for the next battle at Arizona State on Saturday.”
PJ Haggerty is the nation’s No. 7 scorer at 22.7 points per game after scoring 19 against Arizona.
The Sun Devils shot 27.5% (11 of 40) from the field in the first half against BYU and 37.8% overall after making 17 of 34 attempts in the second half. They were 7 of 25 (28%) from 3-point range.
“We were terrible,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “We missed wide open layups early. … We broke some kind of record for missing mid-range shots.”
Anthony “Pig” Johnson led the Sun Devils with 24 points but took 21 shots from the field and made just seven of them. Massamba Diop finished with 22 points and nine rebounds.
Diop, a 7-foot-1 post player, will be important inside on Saturday following Kansas State’s struggles in the paint against Arizona.
–Field Level Media
