Let's recap Kansas State's exhibition contest against Washburn in The Final at K-StateOnline.

It certainly wasn't pretty, but it was an (exhibition) win.

Kansas State looked sluggish from start to finish Wednesday night against Washburn, but ultimately the Wildcats had enough to earn a 66-56 win in the second, and last, exhibition for K-State before the regular season begins.

The Wildcats led just 32-30 at the end of the first half after trailing for a good chunk of the opening 20 minutes. K-State shot 50 percent (11-of-22) from the field in the first half, but poor free-throw shooting (9-of-15), 3-point shooting (1-of-5) and 11 first-half turnovers kept the Wildcats from creating any separation. That, and the fact 8-of-11 first-half makes from the visitors came from 3-point range.

The only four Wildcats with positive plus/minus (point differential while on the court) at halftime were the four newcomers: DaJuan Gordon (+7), David Sloan (+4), Montavious Murphy (+2) and Antonio Gordon (+2).

K-State didn't create any real separation until the 11:01 mark of the second half, when Cartier Diarra hit a 3-pointer while being fouled to put K-State up 46-39. Diarra would miss the free throw, however, leaving Diarra just 1-of-5 from the charity stripe at that point. A Levi Stockard jumper on the next possession would give K-State a 9-0 run and it's biggest lead yet at 48-39.

The Ichabods would hang around throughout, but a Makol Mawien jumper with just more than seven minutes left gave K-State a double digit lead at 55-45, and Washburn would never truly close the gap the rest of the way.

K-State's returnees had their issues against Washburn, but Mawien certainly did his part in helping K-State avoid the upset.

On a night where K-State seriously struggled from the foul line, Mawien was a perfect 4-of-4 while also leading the Wildcats in points (16) and second in rebounds (9). The senior big man also avoided foul trouble, not picking up his first whistle until just 5:57 were left in the contest.

Xavier Sneed did finish with a double-double, himself, with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Wildcats were not near as crisp to start the game as they were in their first exhibition game. At the under 12:00 timeout, K-State was shooting 50 percent from the field compared to Washburn’s 29 percent, yet the Wildcats trailed by one. The reason for that was seven early turnovers for K-State. Some of those were due to carelessness, some due to trying to force something that wasn’t there, and others were simply not finishing the play. David Sloan, in particular, made several nice passes off of pick and rolls, but the recipients of the pass were not able to make the play.

K-State was able to get several good looks early in possessions last Friday due to pushing the ball up the court, and then continuing to move themselves and the basketball, which didn’t allow Emporia State to ever get in a good position defensively. Tonight, the ball stuck far more often.

It was good for K-State to face a zone defense before getting to the regular season, and, ironically, their ball movement in the first half was better against the zone. DaJuan Gordon got a good look from three off a quick ball reversal. On the next possession, Antonio Gordon caught the ball at the elbow and quickly pitched it to D. Gordon on the opposite wing, and he finished with a nice baseline floater.

Defensively, it was a bit of a mixed bag again for K-State. A couple of times two defenders started to rotate to the ball and didn’t communicate, which caused them to either both leave the ball or left them vulnerable on the subsequent pass and rotation. K-State defenders also need to do a better job of closing out to shooters and staying on their feet on the perimeter.

Individually, DaJuan Gordon and Sloan gave the Wildcats solid minutes off the bench. Defensively, there are times where Gordon plays too high when guarding the ball, but his awareness off the ball was better tonight. On one play, his man set a back screen for the post at the elbow. Gordon helped on the post diving to the block and then quickly recovered to his man who had received a down screen. Offensively, Gordon went to the offensive glass and had a couple of nice finished in the mid-range after not settling for threes.

Two exhibition games is definitely not a big enough sample size to draw any long-term conclusions from or to cause panic; however, K-State will need to get more from both Cartier Diarra and Mike McGuirl offensively than they have gotten thus far. McGuirl, for the most part has not forced anything and has taken good shots. He just hasn’t been able to knock very many of the down. To me, it looks like Diarra has forced a few things due to the frustration of not being able to get more going.

From this point on, they'll all count. And, K-State knows it will have to be better than it was tonight.

K-State will officially open up the 2019-20 season next Tuesday against North Dakota State. The Bison made the NCAA Tournament a season ago, falling to No. 1 seed Duke in the Round of 64, 85-62.

From there, the Wildcats will head to UNLV on Saturday, Nov. 9, representing back-to-back challenges to open the season for K-State.