Dallas ? Bob Knight managed to salvage at least one milestone from the worst season since his West Point days.

Despite poor shooting by scoring star Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech beat Kansas State 73-65 Thursday in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament.

For Knight, the best part was keeping alive the Red Raiders’ streak of winning at least one game at the conference tournament in each of his five seasons. This win also snapped a four-game losing streak, his longest at Tech.

“I have always thought that you start out the season trying to win the national championship,” Knight said. “When that’s eliminated, you are trying to go to the NCAA Tournament. … Our goal was to win a game in (the Big 12) tournament and then see what we can do from there.”

For Kansas State (15-13), the loss likely marked the end of coach Jim Wooldridge’s tenure. After the game, he met with athletic director Tim Weiser, then told reporters, “I think there’s an announcement that’s going to be made.” Soon after, Weiser went to the team hotel to meet with players, then was to return to the arena for a 6 p.m. news conference.

Tech (15-16) next plays No. 8 Texas, the tournament’s top seed, in the quarterfinals Friday.

The Red Raiders must reach the final to avoid Knight’s first losing season since 1970-71, when his Army squad went 11-13. Tech probably has to win the tournament to keep him from missing the postseason for the first time since 1976-77.

To do so, the Red Raiders are going to need Jackson to make more than 4 of 17 shots.

Jackson, the conference’s leading scorer, still managed to put up 21 points, but padded the total with 10 straight free throws over the final 1:10. The offense was propped until then mostly by Martin Zeno (17 points) and reserve Tanner Ogden, who was 5-of-7 for a career-best 14 points.

“I was just trying to come off the bench and give the team a spark,” said Ogden, who’d never scored more than eight points in 41 career games and had only 36 all season. “Before the game, coach told me to get ready. You never know. Some days he tells me to get ready and I never come in. You just have to always be prepared.”

Texas likely will be more ready to defend Ogden than Kansas State was — his older brother, Chris, is on the Longhorns’ staff and watched the game from press row.

Jackson came in averaging 26.6 points over his last five games, then went 3-of-9 in the first half. He was 1-of-8 the rest of the game, with his only basket coming on a layup following a steal at midcourt.

“You’re going to have games like this,” Jackson said. “All that matters to me is that we were able to pull it out. It was just one of those days.”

The Wildcats led for most of the first half and kept it close for most of the second half. Although their last lead was 42-41, they were within 59-57 with 3:50 left and were down two baskets with about a minute and a half left.

David Hoskins led Kansas State with 25 points, tying his career best, and Dramane Diarra had 12 points and 12 rebounds. Mario Taybron added eight assists, but missed all four shots he took. The Wildcats also were hurt by going 1-of-12 on 3-pointers.

“Everything they did, coach talked about in the scouting report,” Diarra said, referring to the embattled Wooldridge. “We just didn’t execute well and make the right plays at the right time.”

Kansas State closed the season with four losses in its last five games, dropping the Wildcats’ record under Wooldridge to 83-90 over six seasons.

They took a small step back after going 17-12 last season, although this season included their first win over top rival Kansas since 1994 and nine losses by five points or less. The season was even tougher on Wooldridge because of a bulging disc that required surgery last month, leaving him to work the final six weeks while wearing a neck brace.