Abdi Bashir Jr. made five 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 18 points as Kansas State held off a furious second-half rally to claim an 83-76 win over Creighton on Saturday afternoon in Omaha, Neb.
David Castillo added a game-high 19 points off the bench for the Wildcats (7-4), who have won two straight and picked up their first road win. P.J. Haggerty, the nation’s leading scorer at 24 points per game, was held to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting for his lowest output of the season for Kansas State.
The Bluejays (5-5), who lost for the first time at home, were led by Josh Dix and Isaac Traudt with 18 points each.
Bashir Jr., an Omaha native who played the last two seasons at Monmouth, was one of five Wildcats to connect from beyond the arc in the first half. Kansas State shot 65% (11 of 17) from 3-point range to take a commanding 51-33 lead.
Traudt served notice right after the break that the Bluejays weren’t going anywhere. He made two straight 3-pointers, Austin Swartz had a trey and Dix scored on a layup for an 11-0 Creighton run that brought the deficit under double digits.
Creighton kept chipping away at the Wildcats’ lead as Kansas State went cold from deep, making just 1 of 11 3-point attempts in the second half. After two free throws from Dorin Buca pushed Kansas State’s lead back to 14 at 61-47, the Bluejays scored eight straight points on threes from Ty Davis and Dix and a dunk from Iowa transfer Owen Freeman.
Traudt finished with four 3-pointers while Swartz also made four treys and totaled 12 points.
Two Traudt free throws made it a 73-70 game with 2:41 to play, but Castillo and Khamari McGriff, who had 12 points and six rebounds, played the role of closer.
After a driving layup by Castillo, McGriff threw down a dunk to make it 77-70 with 1:21 to go. After Traudt’s 3-point play, Castillo answered with two free throws and McGriff added a bucket. Castillo closed the game with a thunderous dunk in the waning seconds.
