Manhattan was maddening for Caleb Love and No. 13 Arizona.
Love’s shooting, which made a turn for the better during Arizona’s recent six-game winning streak, was symbolic of Arizona’s performance — as cold as the freezing temperature outside of Kansas State’s arena at Manhattan, Kan.
Love finished with six points after shooting 3 of 15 from the field, 0 of 7 from 3-point range, in the 73-70 loss Tuesday night.
Arizona (17-7, 11-2 Big 12) returns to McKale Center on Saturday at noon to play No. 6 Houston (20-4, 12-1). The Cougars, a game ahead of the Wildcats in the conference standings, have yet to lose on the road this season with a 6-0 record.
Kansas State (13-11, 7-6) has won six straight games, four against ranked opponents, after losing six consecutive games earlier in the conference season.
Trey Townsend missed his second straight game because of concussion protocol. He did not make the trip.
Both teams struggled from 3-point range with Arizona going 2 of 22 while Kansas State was 1 of 19.
Kansas State tonight went 1-19 (5.3%) from 3 and beat (13) Arizona.
It’s the lowest 3-point % by any team in a win over a ranked opponent in 9 years.
Arizona shot 2-22 (9.1%) from 3.
It’s the first D-I game since 2022 in which both teams shot under 10% from the 3-point line.
— Jared Berson (@JaredBerson) February 12, 2025
“They were the deserving team today,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said of Kansas State on the KCUB 1290-AM postgame show. “I still thought we had it. I thought when we got that two-point lead (62-60 with 4:05 left), we hadn’t really played as well as I would like.
“We gave up that big run (13-0 to close the first half), which was disappointing, and then we just didn’t play great down the stretch. Kansas State deserves credit. It was a great environment. The more desperate team found a way to get it done. We’ve got to move on from this, but we also got to learn from it.”
Dug McDaniel, the best opposing Big 12 player against Arizona this year, had a season-high 24 points and five steals, including a pivotal one in the waning seconds.
Lloyd’s team played only its second one-possession game decided in regulation this season. It lost 57-54 against UCLA in Phoenix on Dec. 14 and then went on to win 13 of its previous 14 games before Tuesday night.
Brendan Hausen made two free throws with 6.1 seconds remaining to put Kansas State ahead 73-70.
After an Arizona timeout, a pass from Jaden Bradley was intercepted at midcourt by McDaniel, who flipped the ball to Max Jones.
Jones was fouled and missed two free throws with 3 seconds left.
Love, who made a 55-foot shot to force overtime against Iowa State two weeks ago, heaved a 60-foot shot off the mark as the buzzer sounded.
“This conference is tough,” Lloyd said. “Maybe these guys are starting to get a little tired. You know what I mean? I didn’t realize there’s only three made 3’s in the game (by both teams). That’s not very pretty.
“But, hey, I think we can coach better. I know we can play better. I love the position we’re in (second place in the Big 12). You know what? In a conference like this, you just gotta suck it up. You gotta learn from it and move on. There’s no reason to hang your head.”
Kansas State’s David N’Guessan finished with 16 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 1:27 left.
KJ Lewis played with a sore right wrist but led Arizona with 15 points and seven rebounds and Bradley finished with 13 points.
Bradley had five of Arizona’s 17 turnovers in the game that led to 23 points for Kansas State. Bradley had only three turnovers spanning 75 minutes in the previous wins over BYU and Texas Tech.
Henri Veesaar had 12 points and seven rebounds and Tobe Awaka finished with 10 points.
Carter Bryant finished with a career-high 11 rebounds.
Anthony Dell’Orso started and was effective from the field, making 3 of 5 shots, but he played only 15 minutes because of defensive lapses.
The game had 10 lead changes and nine ties.
Kansas State scored eight unanswered points, including two strong moves to the basket by McDaniel, to take a 68-62 lead with 1:39 left.
After Veesaar’s two free throws with 1:27 remaining, following when N’Guessan fouled out, the teams traded possessions before Hausen made two free throws to give Kansas State a 70-64 lead with 57.7 seconds left.
Bradley then converted twice from the free-throw line with 49.9 seconds left.
Following Hausen’s miss of the front end of the one-and-one situation, Love drove to the basket for a reverse layup to cut the lead to 70-68.
CJ Jones was fouled and made one of two free-throw attempts with 23 seconds remaining.
Lewis’ putback with 7 seconds left trimmed Kansas State’s lead to 71-70.
Hausen then followed with his two free throws before Bradley’s turnover on the inbound pass that was stolen by McDaniel at midcourt.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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