Manhattan ? Kansas State guard Clent Stewart doesn’t expect any blowouts when the Wildcats open Big 12 play Jan. 8.

By then, they’ll have had plenty of practice at winning close games.

Fred Peete scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half, and Kansas State withstood a late rally to beat Texas-San Antonio, 73-69, Saturday night.

Kansas State improved to 7-0, its best start since the 1997-98 season. Six of the wins have come by fewer than 10 points.

“We’re just very confident,” Stewart said. “We’ve only had one blowout. We know we can win in tight quarters.”

It didn’t look like Kansas State would have to after opening an 18-point lead with 13:25 to go. But the defending Southland Conference champion Roadrunners (4-3) slowly picked away at the lead, and Rapheal Posey hit a three-pointer with 1:16 left to get Texas-San Antonio within 65-58.

“They started knocking down some shots,” said Lance Harris, who added 14 points for the Wildcats. “I was getting kind of nervous.”

Despite going to the free-throw line on seven of their last eight possessions, the Wildcats couldn’t put the game away. Posey knocked down two more three-pointers, and Adam McCoy made another to pull Texas-San Antonio within 72-69 with 10.3 seconds to go.

“We were just letting down on our assignments,” Peete said. “We tried to keep them from shooting, but shots like that go in late in games.”

Kansas State finally sealed the win when Peete, who battled leg cramps in the second half, made one of two free throws with 8.8 seconds left.

“Even though they had us down 18 in the second half, I thought we competed,” Texas-San Antonio coach Tim Carter said. “I think we were a little shell-shocked when we came out here. We’ve got to compete for 40 minutes.”

Posey, who grew up in Topeka, finished with 22 points for Texas-San Antonio, 10 of them came in the final 1:16.

“The last couple minutes, some things started going for us,” he said. “It made the game a lot closer than it was.”

Kansas State led, 18-15, with 6:10 to go in the first half, but a three-pointer by Cartier Martin and an alley-oop dunk by Harris triggered a 9-0 run that helped the Wildcats build a 29-21 halftime lead.

The Wildcats then used an 18-8 run to build their biggest lead of the game at 47-29 before Texas-San Antonio clawed its way back.

Jeremiah Massey, who averages 15.5 points, was held to just seven for the second straight game. Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said his leading scorer needed to better deal with adversity.

“It’s an issue we need to address,” he said. “Things don’t go well all the time. Each person has to deal with it in a sound way. When it doesn’t go well, you can’t get emotionally off-center.”