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With only seven scholarship players available and without their head coach, Kansas State mustered a valiant effort against No. 14 Texas, but the second half got the best of them in the 70-57 loss.

Shane Southwell assumed head coaching duties with only assistant Jermaine Henderson by his side. Both head coach Bruce Weber and associate head coach Chris Lowery stayed home due to health and safety protocols.

Had they won, the win would have gone to Weber in his absence. Since they lost, Southwell is given his first loss as a head coach and the Wildcats fall to 0-2 in the Big 12.

It was mentioned after the game from Nijel Pack and Southwell that the energy was raised in the locker room prior to tipoff. The music was blaring, the team was jumping around and it translated into a very impressive first half against a top 15 team.

Slow starts have been a bad habit throughout the season, but they changed that tune Tuesday evening.

With Markquis Nowell, Kaosi Ezeagu and Davion Bradford all absent, K-State still found a way to carry a six-point lead into halftime. The Longhorns were also without a key piece in veteran guard Andrew Jones.

The Wildcats went on a scoring drought at the beginning of the second half and relinquished the lead, unable to get it back into their possession. Kansas State chipped double-digit deficits down to six points on three different occasions.

The final time came with under three minutes remaining. K-State failed to score after that and allowed Longhorn Timmy Allen to score the final seven points for Texas to close out the victory in Bramlage Coliseum.

Kansas State travels to West Virginia on Saturday to try and avoid an 0-3 start to their conference slate. Nowell should be available. Ezeagu and Bradford are questionable due to protocols.

It was really a game of two halves for the depleted Wildcats against a good Texas team, who was also missing one key player in Andrew Jones.

Entering the game I mentioned three things I thought would be keys in the match up; K-State's defensive rebounding, taking care of the ball and making shots.

Only one of those three items worked in Kansas State's favor, which was a problem, but the defense also slipped up badly in the second half.

The Longhorns dominated the rebounding battle by grabbing 41.7 percent of their misses, compared to only 18.2 percent for K-State, and Texas finished with 40 total boards to only 28 for the Wildcats.

Not having Ezeagu and Bradford didn't help, even if they aren't always dominant on the glass. However, the Longhorns didn't take advantage of it as much as they could. Second choice points finished even at eight points apiece.

I thought Kansas State would struggle to take care of the ball against the Texas pressure, but they finished with only six turnovers and with a turnover rate of 9.9 percent. K-State even outscored the Longhorns in points off turnovers 9-6.

Shooting really told the story.

Kansas State was 10 of 19 on two-point baskets (52.6 percent) and 4 of 9 from three-point range (44.4 percent) in the first half in building a six-point halftime lead. The second half saw a major change.

The Wildcats missed all nine attempts from beyond the arc and made only 6 of 18 twos (33.3 percent). That's a major flip and their 22 points show the results of that.

It was also a tale of two halves for the K-State defense. Texas was at 0.98 points per possession in the first half, but that number jumped all the way up to 1.34 in the second half to finish the game with an efficiency of 1.16.

The Longhorns were just 7 of 23 from deep for the game (30.4 percent), but they were 18 of 32 from two-point territory (56.3 percent) throughout the night and a dominant 11 of 18 (61.1 percent) in the second half.

Kansas State received a very nice game from Nijel Pack. He amassed 21 points on 12 shots, made 3 of 7 from distance (42.9 percent), collected 5 rebounds, dished out 3 assists and finished with an offensive rating of 1.52.

Texas did slow him down and limited his touches in the second half.

Selton Miguel had one of his better games, with 13 points and 8 rebounds. But he still struggled from the field. He missed two wide-open looks from beyond the arc and finished just 1 of 4 from the charity stripe.

Ismael Massoud scored nine points, but it was on nine shots. He did continue his perfect season from the free throw line on four attempts. However, he didn't record a rebound, even with Ezeagu and Bradford unavailable.

Other key players, Mark Smith and Mike McGuirl, struggled. They finished a combined 4 of 14 from the floor and came up empty on two three-pointers. They did combine for 12 rebounds, but neither finished with an offensive rating over 0.70, which is a mediocre mark.