Kansas State basketball no match for Houston's elite defense in blowout loss.
HOUSTON — No. 4-ranked Houston scored the game's first 11 points and never looked back Saturday, putting on a defensive clinic on the way to a 74-52 blowout victory over Kansas State basketball at the Fertitta Center.
It was the second straight double-digit road loss for K-State, which fell to 14-6 overall and 4-3 in the Big 12 Conference. Houston improved to 18-2 and 5-2 in the league.
Jamal Shead scored 17 points, J'Wan Roberts added 14 and Damian Dunn chipped in 13 to power the Houston offense. Cam Carter had 16 points, with Arthur Kaluma and Dai Dai Ames each scoring 11 points for K-State.
The Wildcats return home Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game against Oklahoma at Bramlage Coliseum.
Here are three takeaways from another tough road game for the Wildcats.
Houston takes defense to another level
Lest anyone thinks K-State was alone in its futility against Houston's relentless defense. Consider that the Cougars lead not only the Big 12 by a sizable margin, but are best in the nation in at least three categories.
The Cougars came in field goal percentage defense at 34.8, scoring defense at 51.9 points per game and scoring margin at plus-22.1. On top of that, Houston is third nationally in turnover margin at plus-7.5.
Terrible start dooms Wildcats again
If you thought K-State's slow start during Wednesday's 78-67 loss at Iowa State bad, check this out.
The Wildcats trailed Houston 11-0 before Cam Carter finally broke the ice with a jumper in the lane with 14:12 left in the half. By that time, they already had turned the ball over three times and missed four shots.
It was Cam Carter or nothing for the Wildcats
As bad as K-State's start was, it would have been much worse had Carter not put on an offensive show in the first 12 minutes.
Carter not only got the Wildcats on the board but scored nine of their first 12 points. After a scoring drought, he hit a 3-pointer early in the second half, giving him 12 for the game and nearly half of K-State's 26 points at the time.
Carter fouled out with 4:47 left, another blow to the Wildcats on a very tough day.
Related: Kansas State basketball's rally falls short against No. 18-ranked Iowa State
Related: Kansas Stae basketball coach Jerome Tang talks about postgame handshake vs. Iowa State
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: Houston defense smothers Kansas State basketball in blowout
