Kansas State basketball guard Tylor Perry makes up for slow starts with late-game heroics

MANHATTAN — Tylor Perry swears it's not intentional.

If he could have started faster in Kansas State basketball's first seven games, he surely would. Then again, thanks to his late-game heroics, nobody is complaining.

Perry, who has made a habit of overcoming slow starts to put the Wildcats on his back when it counted most, was at it again Tuesday night when he scored all 20 of his points in the second half and overtime of an 88-78 victory over Oral Roberts.

Perry, a 5-foot-11 graduate transfer guard from North Texas, has yet to score more than six points in the first half. And yet he leads the Wildcats (5-2) in scoring with a 17.4-point average heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. game against North Alabama (3-4) at Bramlage Coliseum.

"I wish I could answer it," Perry said. "I've been doing it my whole life. Go back and check, and it's always been like that. It's not a thing that I’m doing on purpose."

"I go at my own pace, and sometimes the first half may not be clicking for me, and then sometimes it does. But it's not anything that I feel like anybody else is doing."

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Despite the disparity between halves, Perry's bottom line has been remarkably consistent. He has scored in double figures in all but one game, and naturally all six of his points in a blowout victory over Central Arkansas came after intermission.

The Wildcats are 2-0 in overtime games in large part because Perry demands the ball at the end of games and has a knack for getting to the free-throw line, where he is shooting 94.9%.

"I don't know that it was something he saw (against ORU). He just wanted the ball, and the moment wasn't too big for him," Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang said.

"He wasn't afraid of failing, so I'm just really proud of him because he's really not feeling well. We've been doing breathing treatments and all kinds of stuff, but he just fought through it. That's what makes him special."

Perry also is shooting 35.9% from 3-point range and leads the Wildcats with 5.3 assists per game and a 3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio. In fact, Tang has asked him to take on more point guard duties than he ever did at North Texas.

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"When you're a point guard, especially when scoring is the thing that gets you off, it is very uncomfortable to go a half without seeing the ball go in the hole," Tang said of Perry, who twice this season has been shut out in the first half. "But what you have to do is embrace the fact that you had six assists. You have to embrace that (with) your assist-to-turnover, you're getting your teammates shots."

Perry agrees that his ballhandling responsibilities may have contributed to his first-half scoring lapses.

"I love getting my teammates involved, and Cam (Carter) had it going super early (against ORU)," Perry said. "And sometimes I just need to get out of the way. When you've got Cam and Arthur Kalum out there hooping like they are, and then you've got somebody like Will (McNair, starting center) on the inside, I'm cool with that."

Carter is averaging 16.9 points and Kaluma 15.7, which has taken some of the scoring burden off Perry.

"I haven't been in a position like this with that many weapons on one team," Perry said. "And so now I'm cool with sitting back and them doing what they do."

Besides, Tang knows that with the game on the line, Perry is ready and willing to take charge.

"He's gritty, man, and he's a winner," Tang said of Perry, who last year led North Texas to the NIT championship, and as a sophomore helped Coffeyville Community College to a national junior college title. "He's won everywhere he's been, and those are just plays that winners make."

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Slow starts nothing new for Kansas State basketball guard Tylor Perry