On Wednesday evening in Cincinnati, Ohio, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting back-and-forth matchup.
Wes Miller and the Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed Jerome Tang and the Kansas State Wildcats to Fifth-Third Arena for the 19th game of the Big 12 regular season. The two traded blows in the first half with some stellar defense, which carried over late into the second half. In the end, it was K-State who sealed the deal with a big win.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from Kansas State’s 54-49 win over the Bearcats.
McDaniel and N’Guessan
While it took a while for shots to fall for the Wildcats, eventually, things clicked for K-State. The best action of the night for the Wildcats was the two-man game between Dug McDaniel and David N’Guessan, who took down the Bearcats with some timely buckets.
N’Guessan was the Wildcats leading scorer with an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double, followed by McDaniel with 13 points, four assists, and two rebounds. While the Wildcats still are significantly out of the picture for an NCAA Tournament bid, they appear to have found something in McDaniel that could carry over into 2025-26.
That’s All Folks!
Well, unfortunately for Cincinnati, the Kansas State loss was the nail in the coffin. They will likely drop out of contention and off of the bubble in a season filled with disappointment. The Wildcats swept the Bearcats in 2024-25 and now have to win the Big 12 Tournament to find their way into the tournament field.
Against K-State, Cincinnati struggled, going 21-57 from the field, 2-18 from three-point land, and just 5-11 from the free throw line. Just two scorers reached double digits, Day Day Thomas and Jizzle James, who combined for 22 of Cincinnati’s 49 points.
Coleman Hawkins Returns
One of the most shocking storylines of the game was the return of Kansas State forward Coleman Hawkins. Rumors of the star forward returning to the court leaked several hours before the game when Hawkins emerged from the Cincinnati tunnel sporting a massive brace on his right knee.
Shortly after, reports were confirmed, and Hawkins returned to the starting lineup for Jerome Tang and company. In the game, he shook off the rust, going 4-10 from the field with nine points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Will he continue to work his way back going forward? Only time will tell how his body responds to the outing but for now, Kansas State is in much better spirits with Hawkins out there.
