What we learned: Kansas State basketball opens Big 12 play with blowout of UCF
MANHATTAN — Kansas State basketball showed no mercy in welcoming Central Florida to the Big 12.
The Wildcats scored the game's first 12 points and never looked back Saturday, rolling to a 77-52 blowout victory over the Knights in the conference opener for both teams at Bramlage Coliseum.
With the victory, K-State improved to 11-3 and 1-0 in the Big 12. UCF fell to 9-4 and 0-1.
Guard Tylor Perry scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and added five assists as K-State built on a 35-19 halftime advantage, pushing the lead to as many as 35 points (60-25). The Wildcats also got 14 points from Arthur Kaluma, 12 points and six assists from Cam Carter and 11 points from Will McNair.
Darius Johnson led UCF with 10 points.
K-State now goes on the road for back-to-back games Tuesday at West Virginia and Saturday at Texas Tech.
Here are three takeaways from a dream start to Big 12 play for K-State.
Welcome back, Tylor Perry
This is the Tylor Perry that K-State has been looking for.
The Wildcats have struggled from the perimeter most of the season, shooting just 30% from 3-point range coming into the game. Perry especially had been in a slump.
That all changed in the second half against UCF as Perry went off, knocking down his first five attempts from beyond the arc — he was 1 of 3 in the first half — and finished the game 6 of 11.
K-State's defense off the charts
K-State shut UCF out defensively for better than 3 1/2 minutes to start the game and never let up.
The Wildcats played with energy from the opening tip and were in complete sync, both in contesting shots on the perimeter and helping in the post, holding UCF to 19 points on 21.6% shooting — 18.2% from 3-point range — in the first half.
UCF shot 33.8% for the game.
Dorian Finister give Wildcats a lift
Redshirt freshman guard Dorian Finister has seen his playing time increase of late after being a nonfactor for most of nonconference play.
Against UCF, on a day when coach Jerome Tang resorted to a seven-man rotation for most of the game, Finister had his most productive outing as a Wildcat, finishing with six points, four rebounds and two assists in a career-high 18 minutes.
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This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Takeaways from Kansas State basketball's Big 12 opener against UCF
