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Kansas State senior Nae’Qwan Tomlin drives for a shot over a Team Mexico defender during the Wildcats’ 83-81 exhibition loss in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023.
Kansas State senior Nae’Qwan Tomlin drives for a shot over a Team Mexico defender during the Wildcats’ 83-81 exhibition loss in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023.
The Kansas State men fell just short in their second game of their international tour Thursday morning, dropping an 83-81 scrimmage versus Team Mexico at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The Mexican national team is in Abu Dhabi training for the FIBA World Cup in the Philippines later this month. They are ranked as the 31st best national team in the world by FIBA.
The Wildcats led by nine early before Team Mexico surged and took a 19-18 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The game stayed tight the rest of the way, with neither team jumping ahead by more than five points for the duration.
A 7-0 Team Mexico run midway through the fourth quarter put the Wildcats down four, 80-76, with two minutes to play.
Two technical free throws and a 3-pointer from senior transfer Tylor Perry put K-State back ahead by a point with less than 40 seconds to play.
Perry led all scorers with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting, all of which came from behind the 3-point line. He fouled out with a little less than 30 seconds to play. Senior Nae'Qwan Tomlin, who had 15 points and seven rebounds, also fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Team Mexico went to the line twice in the final 30 seconds, pushing their lead to two with 11.7 seconds to play. The Wildcats had one final shot to tie things up, but the inbounds pass from Cam Carter to Arthur Kaluma was nearly stolen, leading to a rushed shot in the final seconds.
“This was exactly what our staff wanted," head coach Jerome Tang said in a written statement. "We wanted to be able to play all 10 guys, and try to balance the minutes. And we knew that Mexico had a really good team, so we were going to find out a lot about our guys today. ... I couldn't have asked for anything better, except for, maybe not turning it over as much as we did and not having, (Perry) and (Tomlin) at the end of game. But it put other guys in situations that maybe they don't have to be in during the season. They're going to be able to revert back to this and know what to what not to do with that.”
The Wildcats turned the ball over 15 times and were outscored in the paint 3—16.
Team Mexico was led by Gael Bonilla who had 17 points and Moises Andriassi who had 16 points off the bench including four 3-pointers. Bonilla and Andriassi both play for the NBA G-League team in Mexico City.
Other double-digit scorers for the Wildcats included Carter who had 11 and Macaleab Rich who put up 10, including a strong start to the game.
Fellow freshmen Dai Dai Ames had nine points and RJ Jones had just three after a double-digit effort versus Israel Select earlier in the week.
“I love their growth," Tang said. "We started (Rich) today because we wanted to get him more minutes. And he really gave us a lot to start the game. And then like most freshmen late in the game, his body kind of cramped up on him and, and so conditioning and some more experience will help with that. Both RJ (Jones) and Dai Dai (Ames), they did a great job and I was really pleased what they did defensively more than what they did offensively.”
The Wildcats will wrap up their first international tour since 2016 early Friday morning local time when they face a team from Sharjah, the third largest city in the United Arab Emirates, at 4 a.m. Central time. Currently, there is no link available for the stream.
