Wildcats knock off No. 8 Kansas

Kansas guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (12) takes a swipe at a ball held by Kansas State forward Wesley Iwundu (25) during the first half, Monday, Feb. 23, 2015 at Bramlage Coliseum.

Manhattan ? The Kansas University men’s basketball team lost on the road for the third time in four games, falling 70-63 to Kansas State on Monday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

The Jayhawks (22-6 overall, 11-4 Big 12) got another big time night from Perry Ellis (24 points on 10-of-16 shooting) but could not get much else offensively from anyone other than the junior from Wichita and followed up road losses at Oklahoma State and West Virginia with a loss to their Sunflower State rival to the west.

It marked the second year in a row that Kansas lost at K-State and the third straight road game in which the opposing team’s fans stormed the floor following a victory. It also pulled Iowa State (20-6, 10-4) even with KU in the loss column with just a few games remaining in the Big 12 race.

• Box score

K-State (14-15, 7-9) got a career-high 20 points from Nigel Johnson and also got double-digit efforts from Nino Williams and Thomas Gipson.

Here’s a quick look back at some of the action:

• The game turned when: K-State responded to KU’s 11-2 run to open the second half with a 14-6 run that tied the game at 47 and put both teams in position to scratch and claw for the final 11 minutes.

• Offensive highlight: It came early and, not surprisingly, it again came from Ellis, who continues to look as locked in as any player in the Big 12 right now. This time, however, sophomore guard Wayne Selden Jr. has just as much to do with the highlight as anyone. Just a couple of minutes into the game, with KU running everything through Ellis, Selden caught a pass on the wing in front of K-State’s bench and threw a zipped diagonal pass to Ellis standing in the lane on the opposite side of the floor. After slipping past a defender who challenged the pass, Ellis cocked the ball behind his head with two hands and hammered it to give KU a 5-2 lead. Ellis went on to finish the half with 15 points.

• Defensive highlight: There weren’t many. KU routinely struggled to keep the KSU guards in front of them and gave up too many points at the rim.

• Key stat: The Wildcats out-shot KU 47 percent to 39 percent on a night when Kansas missed far too many shots at or near the rim, including 10 in the first half alone. KU finished 22-for-56 from the floor, and outside of Perry Ellis’ 10-for-16 shooting performance, went just 12-for-40.

• Up next: The Jayhawks return home Saturday for another showdown with Texas at 4 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse. KU played one of its best games of the season in topping Texas 75-62 Jan. 24 in Austin, Texas.

— See what people were saying about the loss during the KUsports.com live blog.