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Kansas State keeps Texas Tech winless in Big 12

Jan 26, 2012 - 7:24 AM Lubbock, TX (Sports Network) - Martavious Irving finished with 16 points on 6- of-10 shooting from the floor, leading No. 22 Kansas State to a 69-47 victory over Texas Tech on Wednesday.

Rodney McGruder scored 13 points and pulled down six boards for the Wildcats (15-4, 4-3 Big-12), who have won three consecutive games.

"I thought defensively we were really good," Kansas State head coach Frank Martin said. "When we play the way we play we are going to commit some fouls. But we committed some backcourt hand checks and silly fouls away from the ball that you can't commit. We have got to clean those up. But when we're good defensively we try not to let teams get in rhythm."

Jordan Tolbert scored a game-high 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and pulled down eight rebounds for Texas Tech (7-12, 0-7) and Kevin Wagner added 16 points. Jaye Crockett donated nine points and five rebounds for the Red Raiders, who dropped their seventh consecutive game.

The teams traded buckets early, with Texas Tech holding a 7-6 lead six minutes in, but Kansas State countered with a 12-0 run to take an 18-7 lead with 7 1/2 minutes to play in the first half.

Texas Tech responded with a 9-4 push to get back into the game, trailing 22-16 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the opening half.

Kansas State though, closed out the first 20 minutes with a 9-4 burst of its own to lead 31-20 at the break.

Kansas State came out in the second half and continued its dominance, opening the final 20 minutes of play by outscoring the Red Raiders 16-7 to take a 47-27 lead with just over 13 minutes to play.

Texas Tech never threatened the remainder of the game, as Kansas State led by double-digits the rest of the way and cruised to the easy win.

Turnovers doomed the Red Raiders, as they turned the ball over 25 times. leading to 27 Wildcats points.

"We just got physically whipped," Texas Tech head coach Billy Gillispie said. "I thought they played with a lot of toughness and a lot of grit for the most part but just too many errors that you can't have against a good team and errors that we just keep repeating and not finishing plays."

Game Notes

Kansas State owns a narrow 15-12 lead in the all-time series with Texas Tech, and the Wildcats have won five of the last six meetings....The Wildcats outscored Texas Tech, 38-27, in the second half of play...Kansas State shot 48 percent from the floor and just 1-of-9 from three-point range, while Texas Tech shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 3-of-13 from beyond the arc.