WAKEENEY – The Plainville Cardinals qualified five wrestlers for next week’s state 3-2-1A State Wrestling tournament next week in Hays with top-four finishers at the Trego regional tournament in WaKeeney.

The Cardinals had two individual champions and two runner-up finishers.

At 113 pounds Jesse Mackey defeated Breckin Sauvage of Decatur Community with a fall in the second period fall in the championship match.

Jordan Finnesy defeated Oakley’s Morgan Rains in an 11-7 decision to win the championship at 170 pounds.

Brandon Rohr lost an 11-8 decision to Aidan Baalman of Hoxie in the championship match at 145 pounds to finish runner-up.

At 195 pounds Ryan Junkermeier finished second after losing a 5-4 decision to Hagan Booi of Colby.

Ben Hansen finished fourth at 152 pounds after losing a 6-4 match to Cade Lanning of Colby.

The Hoxie Indians qualified four wrestlers for the state tournament with four individual champions.

At 120 pounds Drew Bell captured the individual title with a 7-0 win over Garin Cooper of St. Francis.

Dylan Weimer picked up a 3-0 win over Tiernan Poling to claim the 132 title.

Baalman earned the individual title at 145 with the win over Rohr.

At 170 pounds Dayton Porsch picked up the individual championship at 160 pounds with a first-period fall over Tate Seabolt.

Ellis had three wrestlers qualify for the state tournament including Konnor Pfeifer who earned the individual title at 152 pounds with a 3-2 win over Jesse Gardner of Wichita County in the championship match.

Sam Pyle also qualified for the state tournament with a third place finish at 113 pounds after picking up a first period fall over Brody Kaup of Goodland.

Mason Gottschalk placed third at 145 pounds with a second period fall over Norton’s Dylan Goss in the third-place match.

Trego had two wrestlers finish qualify for state with a pair of top four finishes.

Parker Opat finished runner-up at 285 after a losing by a second period fall to Hadley Panzer of Lakin in the championship match.

At 220 pounds Dillon Dunn finished fourth with a 6-0 loss to Reegon Witt of Decatur Community.

BELOIT – At the Beloit Regional tournament Stockton had two individual qualifiers.

Markeis Spiller finished second at 112 pounds after losing by injury default to Colton Shoemaker.

At 132 Trenton Howell finished fourth after losing a third-place match, 3-0 to Austin Niblock of Phillipsburg.

Smith Center won the Beloit Regional and had seven wrestlers qualify for state and Phillipsburg placed sixth as a team and qualified five for the state tournament.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Devon Dotson drove through a crowd of West Virginia players, stopped in his tracks and passed the ball across the key, finding K.J. Lawson alone in the corner. Without hesitation, Lawson sunk his third 3-pointer of the game before running down the court celebrating with his brother, Dedric.

K.J. Lawson scored a season-high 15 points in 24 minutes, the first time he’s played more than 20 minutes since transferring from Memphis, and No. 14 Kansas beat the Mountaineers 78-53 on Saturday.

“I’m real happy for him, and it’s nice to see guys hang in there, and when their number is called they’re ready, and he’s been ready,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

Dotson also scored 15 points and Dedric Lawson had 14 for the Jayhawks (20-6, 9-4 Big 12), who won their third straight as they continue to start four freshmen.

Lamont West and Chase Harler scored 11 points apiece for West Virginia (10-15, 2-10), which struggled without former starters Esa Ahmed and Wesley Harris, who were dismissed from the team earlier in the week for violating athletic department policies.

“One of the biggest things is those two guys rebounded it for us,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.

Ahmed was averaging 12 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, while Harris was putting up 7.9 points and 4.5 rebounds. With the early-season injury to Sagaba Konate, the Mountaineers are now without three of their top four rebounders.

Kansas held West Virginia to a season-low 16 points at halftime, and the Mountaineers shot 33.9 percent for the game, including 3 of 23 from 3-point range. West Virginia didn’t reach double-digit scoring until 5:52 remained in the first half.

The Mountaineers finished with 24 turnovers. In West Virginia’s 65-64 win over Kansas in Morgantown on Jan. 19, the Mountaineers turned it over just 13 times.

“Just keeping a man in front, pressuring the ball, making it hard for making entry passes, make them pass the ball side to side,” Dotson said. “We put the pressure on them and I thought the bigs did a great job on cover today.”

Kansas held an opponent to 53 points or fewer for just the third time this season, and it was the first time the Jayhawks have kept a Big 12 opponent under 60 points.

The Jayhawks got the crowd excited with several flashy plays in the second half, including a fierce one-handed dunk by Ochai Agbaji. Fans at Allen Fieldhouse were also pleased to learn of No. 18 Kansas State’s 78-64 loss to No. 23 Iowa State as Kansas cruised through the final minutes.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN

In addition to Dotson and Agbaji, Kansas started freshmen Quentin Grimes and David McCormack, who played a career-high 24 minutes. Agbaji (10 points) has scored in double figures in five of his last six games.

BIG PICTURE

West Virginia: The Mountaineers sit last in the Big 12 standings. West Virginia has not finished conference play outside the top five since 2014, when it ended the season in seventh place.

Kansas: The Jayhawks remain in contention for the Big 12 title. After Kansas State’s loss to Iowa State, Kansas lurks a half-game behind the Wildcats, tied with No. 15 Texas Tech. The Sunflower Showdown in Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 25 could end up deciding the conference championship.

UP NEXT

West Virginia: Hosts Kansas State on Monday.

Kansas: Visits Texas Tech next Saturday in another critical game in the upper tier of the Big 12.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Iowa State was drilled at home by TCU a week ago, then had to sit around without another game until Saturday, left to brood over its uphill climb to get back into the Big 12 race.

The Cyclones finally released that pent-up angst against No. 18 Kansas State.

Lindell Wigginton hit five 3-pointers and scored 23 points, Talen Horton-Tucker buried six 3s and had 20, and the No. 23 Cyclones pulled away late for a 78-64 victory over the Big 12-leading Wildcats on Saturday to answer a chorus of critics that had been surfaced over the past seven days.

“Soft on defense. Not moving the basketball. Not running the floor. Not sharing. Not being engaged in huddles. Not executing out of timeouts,” Cyclones coach Steve Prohm said, reflecting on what needed to change after the TCU loss. “We had a list of things that weren’t very good.”

Oh, the Cyclones (19-6, 8-4) were quite good against the Wildcats.

They had three double-figure scorers with Marial Shayok contributing 13 points and 13 boards. They went 14 of 24 from beyond the 3-point line, shooting right over Kansas State’s vaunted defense. And they dished out 19 assists while turning it over just 10 times.

“When our A-team shows up,” Prohm said, “we have a chance to do good things. The things the B-team does, we have to keep them as far away as we can.”

Barry Brown had 23 points for the Wildcats, but he didn’t get a whole lot of help. The rest of the team was a combined 2 of 13 from the 3-point arc and 11 of 34 from the field.

Making matters worse, the short-handed Wildcats — already without top backup Cartier Diarra because of hand surgery — lost senior forward Dean Wade with 9:18 to go. The preseason Big 12 player of the year limped off the floor and spent the remainder of the game sitting on the end of the bench.

Wade missed several weeks earlier this season with a right foot injury.

“He had some soreness in his foot all week. He didn’t practice. He was in a boot,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. “It’s not the same injury as before. He tweaked it. … We’ll just have to see.”

The Wildcats’ half-court defense held Iowa State in check until late in the first half, when Horton-Tucker spoiled even good coverage. The freshman guard hit four 3s and finished with 14 first-half points, one of them a fade-away from well beyond the arc as the shot clock expired.

“What are you going to do?” Weber said. “It seemed like they had us spread out, they got us down the line. It’s the same team we held to 57 at their place. They’re good offensively.”

Iowa State was poised to carry a big lead into the break, but Nick Weiler-Babb’s miss with a couple seconds left gave Brown a chance to unload a 3-pointer from just inside the mid-court line.

It rattled home, giving Brown 16 points in the half and drawing Kansas State within 38-31.

Horton-Tucker answered out of the locker room with a 3-pointer from about six feet beyond the arc, and the Cyclones still led 50-41 when Wigginton buried a 3 with 13 1/2 minutes to go.

Kansas State pecked away at its deficit, pulling within 57-56 on Mike McGuirl’s follow shot with 7 minutes left. But the Cyclones continued to respond with a barrage of 3s, and it was Wigginton whose two fall-away 3s in succession allowed them to regain control.

They put the game away when Cameron Lard threw down a dunk with 2:50 to go, and Horton-Tucker buried one last 3-pointer from in front of his celebrating bench.

“We just battled the whole game,” Wigginton said. “When everyone was doubting us, we came in and responded every time. We’ve got toughness. We didn’t show it last week but we did today.”

BIG PICTURE

Iowa State is right back in the Big 12 title picture after avenging its loss to the Wildcats at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones were coming off a surprising home loss to TCU, but otherwise they’ve won seven of their last nine games — including four of their last five on the road.

Kansas State’s margin for error was trimmed considerably, especially with a trip to Kansas still on the docket. The Wildcats now lead Texas Tech by just a half-game in the standings, and the Cyclones and Jayhawks are within striking distance in what has become a four-team race.

UP NEXT

Iowa State returns home to face Baylor on Tuesday night.

Kansas State heads to West Virginia on Monday night.