It took an extra five minutes but Kansas State was able to pull out the win over in state rival Kansas Monday night 85-82 in overtime.

The game went back and forth nearly the entire time with 20 lead changes but Kansas was never able to run away with it leading by no more than two the entire game.

“We had to guard. If we had tried to outscore them we weren’t going to win. We were trying to be patient on offense,” explained Bruce Weber, KSU Head Coach.”That was the only way we had a chance to beat them was to defend them, out hustle them, out tough them and take the game to them. I thought we did that enough to get the victory.”

The game was tied going into half time 29-29. In the second half the score went back and forth with K-State going on a run and then Kansas coming right back to either tie it up or go up by a basket. The Wildcats saw their lead go as high as nine multiple times in the second half but in the final two minutes was when Kansas went on a 9-0 run to tie it up 69-69, off of a tip-in by Andrew Wiggins with four seconds left.

The clock would run out just after a turnover by Will Spradling.

Going into overtime Weber told had a message for his team, “I told them all to look at me. You’ve all worked too hard to not grab this game.”

After Kansas scored the first basket in overtime Weber said K-State could have given up, “I thought the crowd lost a little energy. Our assistants were trying to get the crowd to stay in it.”

It was :24 seconds later though that Spradling responded with a three point shot that got the crowd right back in it.

“I’ve made a lot of those in my day so I wasn’t really worried about it,” Spradling said. “I was confident in shooting it and taking it.”Kansas took the lead back on the next possession but a layup by Marcus Foster gave the Wildcats the lead back and they would never give it up again.

Foster led the Wildcats in scoring with 20 points. Spradling followed Foster with 15 points.

“We just went out there and played hard,” Foster said after the game. “We knew if we played hard then the rest would take care of itself.”

“It was a great win for us and just another step. We are in the Big 12 race. There is still a chance and we are only two games back,” Spradling said. “It was really a big game for us and we have to come out Saturday and be prepared.”

K-State improved to 17-7 on the season and 7-4 in Big 12 play. Kansas fell to 18-6 and 9-2 in conference play.

The Wildcats will be on the road Saturday to Waco, Texas, taking on Baylor in a 6:00 p.m. game.