Kansas State befuddles Missouri men's basketball team again

~ No. 3 Missouri suffered a 78-68 loss on its home floor as the Wildcats swept the season series

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Faced with a chance to stand alone with the best start in school history, No. 3 Missouri instead fell short on Tuesday night to Kansas State, which rode Rodney McGruder's 24 points to a 78-68 win.

In an otherwise charmed season where wins seemed almost routine, Missouri has little time to wallow in defeat. Not with a weekend road trip to Lawrence and No. 4 Kansas awaiting, along with the chance to get back in contention for the Big 12 regular-season title and a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

"We are 25-3. We are 12-3 in the conference," Missouri coach Frank Haith said. "I'm proud of these guys. We want to win every game. It does taste bad when you lose. But we've got to get ourselves ready to compete, and play on Saturday."

Kansas State (19-8, 8-7 Big 12) led 40-30 at halftime and by 16 points with 12 minutes, 32 seconds left in the second half after a twisting layup by McGruder. A late Missouri run got the Tigers within 63-60 with six minutes remaining.

McGruder promptly responded with a 3-pointer to put K-State back in control.

Missouri trailed by four points after two free throws by Michael Dixon with 2:21 left, but Jordan Henriquez answered with an alley-oop dunk following a Tigers timeout. The Wildcats extended the lead on two free throws by Henriquez after a foul by Steve Moore after a missed Michael Dixon 3-pointer. The Wildcats then built on their cushion from the foul line in the final minute.

Dixon scored 21 and Marcus Denmon added 19 for Missouri. The Tigers made just 38.3 percent of their field goal attempts after entering the game hitting more than 50 percent, tops in the Big 12 and third-best nationally. Missouri was 8 of 26 from 3-point range, while Kansas State made six 3s but took 17 fewer attempts than Missouri.

"We were trying to get a 5-point shot," Haith said. "And instead of continuing to play and being aggressive and attacking and putting the ball on them, I thought we settled."

Thomas Gipson added 13 points for Kansas State, which connected on 53.8 percent of its field goals for the game. The Wildcats were even better in the second half, converting 14 of 24.