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Beasley, Kansas State escape with OT win over Central Florida

Nov 24, 2007 - 5:41 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- Michael Beasley and Kansas State just barely avoided being upset for the second night in a row.

Beasley had 30 points and 13 rebounds to lift the 20th-ranked Wildcats to a 73-71 overtime victory over Central Florida in the Old Spice Classic on Friday.

The sensational freshman continued his hot start and is now averaging 30 points and 16.6 rebounds in the first five games of his collegiate career.

"He's a tremendous talent and basketball player, and an instinctive basketball player," UCF coach Kirk Speraw said. "It's just not his physical skills, but his instincts. He has some of the best hands that I've seen."

Darren Kent hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a five-point lead with 1:32 to play in overtime before the Golden Knights cut the deficit to as little as one with 18 seconds left.

Leading by two points with four seconds to play, Kent missed a pair of free throws but Dave Noel missed a 3-pointer from the right wing as time expired.

The win gave Kansas State some consolation after dropping an 87-77 setback to George Mason on Thursday.

"That's why we came to this tournament. To challenge our guys," Kansas State coach Frank Martin said. "You saw a bunch of young bucks out there growing up today."

Jermaine Taylor threw down an alley-oop dunk to tie the game, 61-61, with just over one minute to play in the game, but both teams missed a chance to win the game late in regulation.

Beasley missed a running jumper from the wing with 11 seconds left, and Taylor missed the front end of a 1-and-1 after being fouled with four seconds to play, sending the game into overtime.

"We made some tremendous plays to give us a chance to win the game," Speraw said. "You cannot ask for more from an effort standpoint."

With the loss, Central Florida (2-2) dropped to 1-18 all-time against ranked opponents.

Taylor scored 20 points to lead the Golden Knights, who shot 8-of-26 from the arc for the game.

The Golden Knights jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led for most of the first half. Beasley's 3-pointer with 45 seconds to play in the half gave the Wildcats a 27-26 advantage, which they held at the break.

"He's (Beasley) going to get his (points)," Speraw said. "We just tried to make him earn each one, and I thought for the most part we made him earn every bucket that he got."

Jacob Pullen made three consecutive 3-pointers to give Kansas State its largest lead at 50-37 with just over 11 minutes remaining.

Kansas State (4-1) will play Rider in the fifth-place game on Sunday.