After losing two straight home games, the Wildcats knew they had to rebound against the struggling Colorado Buffaloes. They put down their foot and buried the Buffaloes, 68-51, in front of 12,528 fans.

No.9 Kansas State led Colorado by just two points at halftime. There were seven lead changes and two ties. Buffaloes guard Cory Higgins got into a groove early and didn’t slow down. Higgins shot four of five from the field and was perfect from the free-throw line. He ended the first half with 12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Together, Alec Burks and Higgins contributed for 77 percent of Colorado’s offense in the first half. When asked about first-half play, Kansas State Coach Frank Martin replied, “We played hard and we defended pretty well, we just lacked offense.” Headed into the locker room, the Wildcats knew that in order to defeat the feisty Buffaloes, they would need to contain Burks and Higgins and the offense would need to get going.

Typically this season, the Wildcats have come out flat after halftime which results in them having to play catch-up in the second half. This game was different, however, as the Wildcats opened the second half on an 8-2 run led by six-straight points from Luis Colon.

From the very start of the second half, the Wildcats asserted their dominance over the Buffaloes, who have now lost 34 straight Big 12 road games, dating back to 2006. The Wildcats continued their 8-2 run, stretching it to a 23-8 run which virtually put the game out of reach for the Buffaloes.

“They started making shots, getting rebounds and feeding off their crowd,” Burks said.

The Wildcats out-scored the Buffalos 40-25 in the second half. After opening up with a 2-3 zone defense, Colorado did little-to-nothing on the surging Wildcats’ offense. It didn’t help that the Buffaloes simply could not score on the Wildcats’ defense in the second half. In the second half, the Wildcats forced 9 Colorado turnovers and converted them into 13 easy points. For the game, the Wildcats forced 22 Colorado turnovers and converted them into 26 points. When asked about the defensive intensity of the Wildcats, Burks said, “They take charge, they track you and they are long and active. They are very physical and they’re hard, very hard to play on defense.”

Kansas State definitely played some inspired basketball at home. The Wildcats had 40 points in the paint and 17 fast-break points. Guard Jacob Pullen earned the second double-double of his career by scoring 15 points and dishing 11 assists. When asked about Pullen’s performance, Frank Martin commented, “teams go out of their way to lock down Denis, but that’s when Jacob starts driving and making shots.”

Curtis Kelly was the player of the game for the Wildcats. Despite Pullen’s impressive double-double, Kelly was there when the Wildcats needed him the most. He put up spectacular dunks and did a great job defensively on Colorado’s Casey Crawford, who finished with just four points and three rebounds. When asked about his performance Kelly responded simply, “I think I did well because all my teammates were finding me in the post. They were finding me so well and that all I really had to do was go up and dunk it.”

The win pushes Kansas State’s Big 12 conference record to 7-3, good enough for a second-place tie with Texas A&M. The Wildcats hold the tie-breaker over the Aggies by merit of their 88-65 win on January 12th. The loss pushes Colorado’s conference record to 2-8. Overall, they are 11-13 on the season.

The performance over the Buffaloes was one to remember for Wildcat fans. The Wildcats have achieved four straight 20-win seasons, but more impressively, Frank Martin became the first coach in Kansas State history to begin his coaching career with three-straight 20-win seasons.

The Wildcats stay at home to take on Nebraska February 17th on the Big 12 Network.