Field Level Media
Dec 15, 2018
No. 25 Kansas State beat Georgia State 71-59 Saturday in Manhattan, Kan., but it was a costly victory. Senior stars Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes left the game in the second half with leg injuries.
The Wildcats (7-2) have won 27 straight home games against nonconference competition. They were led by Barry Brown with 21 points. Stokes had 15 before his injury, and Wade had 12 before he went down. Xavier Sneed also was in double-figures with 14 points.
Georgia State (7-4) was led by Jeff Thomas with 13 points. Nelson Phillips added 11 and D'Marcus Simonds finished with 10 points, half of his season average coming in.
K-State's three seniors (Brown, Wade and Stokes) have struggled offensively recently. But by the first media timeout of the second half, they all had reached double figures. But then things went south for the Wildcats.
Wade left the game at the 13:46 mark with a right foot injury. He later left the court on crutches. Wade, the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, missed nearly all of the Wildcats' Elite 8 run in 2018 with a stress fracture in that same foot.
A 14-2 Georgia State run that followed Wade's injury gave the Panthers a 53-50 lead. Then, four minutes later, Stokes suffered a left ankle injury. Neither player returned to the game.
Brown keyed a K-State 12-0 run that regained the lead and helped the Wildcats hold off the Panthers.
The Wildcats shot 48 percent from the field. The team made five of 11 attempts (from four different players) from 3-point range.
Leading scorers Brown (14.3 points per game coming in) and Wade (13.8) had strong first halves. Brown led the Wildcats with eight points at the break, while Wade was one of three Wildcats with seven points.
Thomas led the Panthers with 10 points in the first half. Simonds also had six points.
--Field Level Media