Instant takeaways: Kansas State gets must needed win over BYU

Sense of urgency from Kansas State

Kansas State was locked in from the jump against BYU. K-State raced out to a 12-2 lead that forced a Mark Pope timeout before the under-16 minute timeout. The energy was there from the start and Kansas State played the best first half on the offensive end in months.

Specifically, Arthur Kaluma and Tylor Perry played with a great urgency and energy in the game’s first 20 minutes. Kaluma had 16 points on 4 of 6 shooting in the first half. After a shaky performance against Texas, it was nice to see Kaluma put it behind him and attack the basket.

The Creighton transfer knew how the game was being officiated and did a good job of getting to the free throw line. Kaluma shot 12 free throws for the game.

Perry had 10 points in the first half and started the game a red hot 3 of 4 from the three-point line. The North Texas transfer added two assists in the first half while playing 19 minutes. He finished with 16 points and five assists.

It was one of Perry’s more efficient games of the season as well, shooting 50 percent from the field and 57 percent from beyond the arc.

Taking advantage of matchups

The K-State offense was the best it has looked in conference action. The movement without the ball was great, and Kansas State was sharing the ball well. Everything looked much more crisp, and the Wildcats were taking advantage of matchups.

Specifically Jerome Tang and company were great at finding the mismatch for Kaluma. The junior wing was dangerous and got the ball in advantageous spots and was connecting at a high clip. He ended the game with 28 points on 72 percent shooting.

Kaluma was able to produce good looks against the BYU bigs, and he took advantage of it throughout the contest. Specifically, K-State was able to scheme in a way that saw Kaluma defended by Aly Khalifa multiple times in the second half. That is when he really took over.

Kansas State was so good offensively that the Cougars even switched to a zone in the second half. The zone did not work for BYU, either. The Wildcats were crisp, shot well and took care of the ball for the most part.

Won the threes

Three-point shooting is a big deal when facing BYU. The Cougars love shooting the deep ball and are really efficient to go along with shooting them a high amount. K-State won the battle from deep Saturday afternoon. That is key because the Cougars have never won a game where they lost the three-point battle.

While the overall number was very close, the Wildcats were much better from the perimeter. Perry was 4 of 7 from downtown, Kaluma was 2 of 3 and Dai Dai Ames even knocked one down.

The Cougars took double the amount of three-pointers than Kansas State attempted and shot it significantly worse. BYU still has not won a game this season against a team that shoots better from three than them. That is a crazy stat this late into the season.

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