Kansas State walked into Bramlage Coliseum Saturday with the opportunity to not only take down the 6th ranked team in the country but send a message to the rest of the Big 12 that they are here to compete and that’s just what they did with a 74-71 victory.

“We called it a bar fight in the locker room,” Thomas Gipson said following the game. “It was one of the toughest games we’ve played so far. For us to be young and for us to come out and get a huge win against the number six team in the nation, that feels real good.”

Both teams were swapping punches throughout the entire game with neither team leading by more than five points at a time. It was K-State though that put their signature on their message to the Big 12 in the final five minutes.

“We rebounded, we got some shut outs and we just kind of hung in there. The crowd made a huge difference,” said Bruce Weber, KSU Head Coach.

An 8-0 run by the Wildcats with 5:44 to play gave them a five point lead and the Wildcats would not surrender the lead in part due to timely lay ups and five for six free throw shooting.

With :05 seconds left and Oklahoma State within one Nino Williams, junior forward, was fouled and sent to the free throw line where he sank both of his shots to go up 74-71. A missed 3 point shot by Marcus Smart as time expired gave the Wildcats the victory.

The Wildcats were lead in scoring by freshman, Marcus Foster who recorded 17 points and 8 rebounds. Williams added 15 points with nearly half of those coming from the free throw line.

“This is a good basketball team,” Travis Ford, OSU Head Coach said following the game.”Obviously they were banged up early in the season but they’re going to finish strong in this league. Very, very strong.”

The Wildcats will now go on the road traveling to Fort Worth, Texas Tuesday to take on the TCU Horned Frogs before returning to Kansas and heading to Lawrence to take on the Jayhawks next Saturday.