MANHATTAN, Kan. – Clutch 3-pointers from redshirt freshman forward Davis Kern and senior guard Kalen Garry lifted South Dakota State past Kansas State, 68-66, in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday night before 7,047 fans at Bramlage Coliseum.
Kern and Garry converted on the back-to-back 3-pointers after Kern broke a 60-all tie with pair of free throws with 2:51 to play. Kern’s fifth triple of the night gave the Jackrabbits (1-0) a 65-60 lead with 2:31 remaining. Garry’s 3-pointer then made it 68-62 with 1:40 left.
Despite these clutch shots, the Wildcats had two chances to tie the game in the last 25 seconds. Freshman Jaylen Alexander intercepted a bad pass with 25 seconds remaining, but fifth year Dez Lindsay couldn’t convert on a reverse layup with 9 seconds. After a timeout, junior Joe Sayler was fouled on the inbounds pass with 6 seconds but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw, allowing the Wildcats’ one last chance. However, senior Brandon Rechsteiner’s floater in the lane missed as the buzzer sounded.
Kern led four Jackrabbits in double figures with a game-high 24 points to with a game-tying 8 rebounds, while Garry and sophomore Jon Mekonnen each had 14 points. Summit League Preseason Player of the Year Joe Sayler added 10 points. The loss spoiled the debut of head coach Casey Alexander, as K-State lost in a season opener for the first time since 2023 and the first in a home season opener since 2020.
Junior Pape N’Diaye was a bright spot for the Wildcats, as he paced three players in double figures with a career-high 18 points on 5-of-8 field goals and 8-of-8 free throws. Rechsteiner and junior Isaiah Abraham each scored 16 points.
K-State shot 41.5 percent (22-of-53) from the field, including 28.6 percent (8-of-28) from 3-point range, with 12 assists to 22 made baskets with 12 turnovers. SDSU connected on 43.9 percent (25-of-57) of its field goals, including 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from beyond the arc.
HEAD COACH CASEY ALEXANDER
On if this game slipped away…
“Well, I don’t think it slipped away. You know, I think they, I think they earned it and out executed us and outperformed us down the stretch. They had a couple of guards that really rose to the occasion and showed their experience and their confidence, made plays, and I didn’t do a good enough job, kind of getting us in the same position to make those plays. Just the way it goes.”
On the defensive end… “Yeah, big difference in effort and execution. I really have very little complaint about effort, but we just, I mean, the amount of breakdowns, very similar to how we played at Nebraska that, to a casual observer, are kind of hard to find. You know, we really made a lot of mistakes. Switches on pick and pops, helping off of shooters, in a way that we’re not supposed to. We just know we couldn’t get out of our own way on that end, and again, it wasn’t effort related. But there’s some real specifics about how we guard these actions, you know. And you got to put yourself in the right place to perform that assignment. And if you’re not in the right place, you’re going to get exposed.”
On the offensive side…
“Yeah, not great at all. You know, I felt like we had our moments, you know, but I don’t want this in any way, shape or form to be a team that has to play elite offensively to win a game. And you know, I was most disappointed offensively with how we executed down the stretch. I haven’t looked at the book of stats, but you know they scored. I felt like every possession, if they didn’t turn it over, they scored, you know, and they got better shots than we did. So I was really disappointed that I couldn’t get us in a better place offensively. A good example for the night. We were talking about it on the defensive end, but this is an offensive example. You know, we have a timeout, we draw something up, very clear who goes where, what we do, what we’re looking for, right. And then when we come out of the timeout, we have two guys go to the wrong side, and then in their effort to get it right, we throw it out of bounds. You know, right after a timeout. So those things, those things are critical in tight games, and we just left too many possessions on both ends of the table.”
On not calling a timeout in the final two possessions…
“I am the kind of coach that lets them go play if I know if they know what we’re doing. So, for example, you know, if they missed that last, if they missed the free throw, they missed the front end of the one and one. Then we were in spread. We were going to drive the ball to the rim, and we got a pretty decent shot. You know, we kind of fumbled it a little bit, so it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. If they had missed, if they had made the first one, we were going to call a timeout and talk about that scenario. So, it just kind of depends on the scenario of the situation.” On the shot selection…
“I mean, it wasn’t by any means perfect, you know. And you’re gonna, you know, the defense has to say so in your shot selection. And we were far too 3-point line oriented. Like the offense was at the 3-point line all night. I felt like, especially early, you know, we didn’t get enough paint touches, and you don’t get paint touches just from drives. Like we didn’t get cutters, we didn’t get post touches. We got to do more to get the ball in the interior to kind of loosen things up. But I don’t think we were just searching for 3-pointers, but we didn’t put enough pressure on them. We put them in scrambles and some rotations. It was pretty easy to guard all night, I felt like.”
On any other early losses like this one…
“I mean, I don’t know. I lost my first conference game at Belmont to SIUE, who at the time was not a very good team at all, and we lost at home, and that one sticks out pretty clearly. But we won the league and won the tournament and would have played an NCAA tournament if COVID hadn’t come. So yeah, just there’s every team has these moments. Obviously for us to have a moment right out of the gate is less than ideal.”
FIRST HALF
The teams went back and forth in the early going before a 14-4 run by South Dakota State provided some separation as the visitor built a 25-14 lead at the 7:12 mark. Four different Jackrabbits contributed in the run, including 7 points from sophomore Jon Mekonnen.
K-State chipped away at the deficit, closing to within 30-26 just after the final media timeout of the half behind 5 points from junior Isaiah Abraham, 4 points from junior Pape N’Diaye and 3 points from senior Brandon Rechsteiner. However, the Wildcats could get no closer as the Jackrabbits scored 5 of the last 7 points to go ahead 35-28 at the break. Redshirt freshman Davis Kern led all scorers with 11 points, while Rechsteiner led the Wildcats with 8 points.
SECOND HALF
Consecutive 3-pointers by fifth year Jaden Schutt and Rechsteiner ignited a 12-3 run to start the second half, as K-State regained the lead on a 3-pointer from Abraham to force a SDSU timeout at the 16:46 mark. The run extended to 16-3 after baskets from N’Diaye and freshman Jaylen Alexander that extended the lead to 44-38 at the first media timeout.
The Jackrabbits slowly chipped away at the deficit, using a 12-4 run to go ahead 55-54 just after the third media timeout with 6:21 to play. A 3-pointer by Kern extended the lead to 58-54 before N’Diaye knocked down 4 straight free throws to tie the game at 58-all. Dueling layups by Sayler and Abraham made it 60-all at the final media timeout with 2:51 to play.
Kern gave SDSU the lead for good after a pair of free throws just after the timeout then extended it to 65-60 with his fifth 3-pointer. Following a pair of free throws from N’Diaye, senior Kalen Garry made it 68-60 with his second triple of the night with 1:40 remaining.
The Wildcats didn’t go away closing to 68-66 after a pair of free throws by Abraham with 39 seconds and had two more chances down the stretch to tie. Alexander stole a pass with 25 seconds, but fifth year Dez Lindsay’s reverse layup missed with 9 seconds. After Sayler missed the front of a 1-and-1 free throw with 6 seconds, Rechsteiner’s floater was short at the buzzer. BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
- K-State is now 95-28 all-time in season openers, including an 83-11 mark at home and a 31-4 mark at Bramlage Coliseum.
- This was the first loss in a season opener since an 82-69 loss to USC on Nov. 6, 2023 at the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic in Las Vegas, while it was the first loss in a home season opener since an 80-70 loss to Drake on Nov. 25, 2020.
- K-State’s 4 losses in season openers at Bramlage Coliseum have come to Southern Miss, 74-60, on Nov. 27, 1993, Northern Colorado, 60-58, on Nov. 8, 2013, Drake in 2020 and South Dakota State in 2026.
- Head coach Casey Alexander is now 11-5 in season openers in his career, including 1-1 at Stetson, 5-1 at Lipscomb and 5-2 at Belmont… The loss snapped a 4-game winning streak in season openers for Alexander.
- Alexander is the first Wildcat to lose in his debut since Tom Asbury in 1994, while he is the first since Fritz Knorr in 1944 to lose his home debut.
- K-State used a starting lineup of senior Brandon Rechsteiner, fifth year Jaden Schutt, fifth-year Dez Lindsay, junior Isaiah Abraham and senior Brock Vice… It marked the first career starts at K-State for all 5… It was the first career games at K-State for Jaylen Alexander, Matt Gilhool, Pape N’Diaye, JT Rock and Montana Wheeler.
- Rechsteiner now has 52 career starts (Virginia Tech/Colorado State/K-State), Schutt now has 32 career starts (Duke/Virginia Tech/K-State), Lindsay now has 9 career starts (Oregon/K-State) and Abraham now has 32 career starts (UConn/Georgetown/K-State).
- It was the first career start of Vice’s college career.
- Rechsteiner scored the season’s first points with a 3-pointer.
- Matt Gilhool, Pape N’Diaye and Montana Wheeler were the first subs of the game.
- Eleven of the team’s 14 players saw action.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State scored its 66 points on 41.5 percent (22-of-53) shooting, 28.6 percent (8-of-28) from 3-point range and 14-of-18 at the free throw line.
- K-State made four consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half, including a pair from Brandon Rechsteiner, leading to a 16-3 run in the first 4:57.
- K-State outscored South Dakota State 10-6 in fast break points and 24-6 off the bench.
- K-State held the rebounding margin 34-27 with 6 offensive rebounds.
- K-State dished out the only 3 blocks all game, every block courtesy of Pape N’Diaye.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
- Three Wildcats scored in double figures, including a game-high 18 points from junior Pape N’Diaye and 16 points apiece for senior Brandon Rechsteiner and junior Isaiah Abraham.
- N’Diaye scored his 18 points on 8-of-8 free throws and 5-of-8 field goals… It marked his first time leading the team in scoring… His 8 made free throws were a career high… with 3 blocks he was one block shy of tying his career high.
- Rechsteiner scored his 16 points on 6-of-17 field goals and 4-of-11 from 3-point range… His 17 field goals attempted and 7 rebounds were both a career high… He has made 3+ 3-pointers in 22 total games out of 93 games played.
- Isaiah Abraham scored his 16 points on 6-of-7 field goals and 2-of-3 from 3-point range… IT marked just his second career game with 15+ points… His 32 minutes was a career high while he tied his field goals made with 6.
- Fifth-year Jaden Schutt scored 6 points off 2-of-6 shooting from 3-point range with 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 34 minutes.
- Freshman Jaylen Alexander scored 4 points in his debut on 2-of-4 field goals with 4 steals and 2 assists in 15 minutes.
- Fifth-year Dez Lindsay scored 2 points, both from the free throw line… He recorded 5 rebounds, one shy of his career high… He has 5+ rebounds in 7 career games.
- Senior Brock Vice scored 2 points to go with a career high 2 steals and 3 rebounds.
WHAT’S NEXT
K-State returns to action on Friday when the Wildcats play host to Cal State Northridge (CSN) at 8 p.m., CT at Bramlage Coliseum. It will be the second game of a doubleheader with the Wildcat women’s volleyball team playing Cincinnati at 5 p.m., CT at Morgan Family Arena.
It will be a Wildcat Weekend with discounted tickets ($9 in advance, $12 at the door) available with the purchase of a ticket for Saturday’s football game with Oklahoma State.
A variety of ticket packages (link here) are available for the 2026-27 home schedule which includes 19 games at Bramlage Coliseum.
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