AUSTIN - Kansas State couldn't find a way to earn its first Big 12 Conference win, falling 64-50 at Texas Saturday night.

We recap it all in The Final at K-StateOnline.

Texas hit triples on its first three possessions, two of which were deep, guarded threes as the shot clock expired, for nine quick points and a 9-2 lead right out of the opening tip. The Wildcats were able to get two-point answers early, however, from Makol Mawien, Cartier Diarra and Montavious Murphy - plus a Murphy free throw - to slice it to 9-7 and keep UT from running away early.

K-State trailed 14-7 with roughly 14 minutes left in the opening half, but the Cats again rallied back after falling down seven with a hoop from DaJuan Gordon and two free throws from Xavier Sneed to make it just 14-11 in favor of the Longhorns at the under-12 timeout in the first half.

With K-State trailing by that margin Mawien picked up back-to-back fouls with 11-minutes left in the first half, and Bruce Weber sent him to the bench for the remainder of the first half.

The two teams combined to turn it over 10 times (five each) during a five-minute stretch, but Sneed would hit a triple with K-State down 16-11 to again make it a two-point deficit with nine minutes to play. A D. Gordon jam then tied the contest at 16-16 with 7:28 left at the under-eight first-half break.

K-State took the lead, briefly, on a Diarra hoop inside before the Longhorns immediately responded for a triple and a 19-18 edge with six minutes left in the half. Diarra regained the edge for K-State with a strip and driving lay-up less than a minute later, and the back and forth would eventually leave both teams tied at 23 at the under-four timeout.

Texas gained the lead once again, 26-25 with a free throw with just less than two minutes left before halftime, and a Matt Coleman hoop extended that edge to three points. Levi Stockard did knock in a 15-footer, however, 20 seconds before the half expired, but Texas answered with a three with 0.1 seconds left in the first half.

The fourth first-half 3-point buzzer beater for UT left the Horns up 31-27 at halftime.

Mawien headed directly back to the bench just 27 seconds into the second half with his third foul. It came when Diarra failed to box out the shooter and grab a defensive board - grabbed by the shooter - forcing Mawien to challenge a shot at the rim on the attempted put-back. Both free throws were made by UT for a 33-27 edge, too. Jericho Sims worked Stockard inside the next trip down for another basket and an eight-point edge, leaving K-State to call a timeout with 17:58 left.

By the time the under-16 timeout arrived, K-State still hadn't scored in the second half and trailed 35-27. Texas hit its fifth buzzer beating three with just more than 15 minutes left, a 25-footer from beyond the top of the key with a second left on the shot clock, for a 38-27 lead. It represented Texas' biggest lead of the evening at that point. Weber had to call a timeout, again, at 13:11 to play and Texas leading 43-27.

The Longhorns had opened the half on a 12-0 run, with the entire run coming with Mawien seated on the bench. He would re-enter the game at that point, but the Wildcats would never truly threaten the rest of the way. K-State didn't score its first points of the second half until 12 minutes, exactly, remained, when UT goal-tended a Diarra layup attempt. The first actual make was a David Sloan triple with 10:30 left to play.

We break down the Wildcats' third-straight Big 12 loss with the help of @ksu_FAN and Chris Nelson below.

DaJuan Gordon's first hoop was a driving layup on a fast break with Texas threatening to create separation with a 14-7 lead. He later scored on a driving dunk down the baseline to tie the game at 16-16 with under nine minutes to play in the opening half. He did also splash in an open corner triple with less than four minutes to play, but at that point it only drew K-State to within 14 at 58-44.

Antonio Gordon entered the game with 14:40 left in the first half after missing the TCU game with a shoulder injury suffered in practice. Gordon's first basket came with five minutes left to play and K-State trailing by a point, when Sneed found him inside for an easy hoop and a 22-21 Wildcats' edge. He would not score again, however, and finished with two points, two rebounds and a turnover in 14 minutes.

Montavious Murphy, as referenced above, scored three quick points after the Wildcats fell down 9-2 in the opening minutes. Murphy didn't score again, though, until a finish inside with three minutes to play and K-State still trailing 58-46 after his basket. He'd add a triple soon thereafter, but it still left K-State trailing by 15 with less that 90 seconds remaining.

If you had told me before the game that K-State would force TOs on 31% of UT's possessions, I would have felt pretty good about this game. However, the Cats turned it over on 28% of their possessions, struggled to shoot it, and had the worst offensive efficiency game of the year. Texas held K-State to only 22.7% on twos in the second half (5-of-22) and blocked 41% of the two-point shots K-State attempted in the half. That, and a 32% TO rate for the half, contributed to an eight-minute scoring drought to start the second as Texas built a 43-27 lead that was never really threatened. K-State's shooting from three ended up at 5-of-15, but many of those were late, and Texas hit 44% from deep to go with a 54% night on twos.

The individual positive was a nine-point and five-rebound night from DaJuan Gordon, as he had a season high efficiency of 1.23 while playing 27 minutes. After that, there weren't many positive performances. Diarra scored 14 points, but on 16 shots and an efficiency under 1.00. Sneed was 1-of-8 from the floor, and Mawien was a non factor. Murphy played really hard all night and had a nice night on the boards, but struggled to shoot it.

K-State simply has too many guys not producing right now, and as a result we're seeing one of the worst offenses at K-State in the 3-point era.

No offense to Shaka Smart, but his Texas teams are rarely hard to defend from a technical standpoint. Their athleticism and length can give you problems at times, but if you are solid in your basic shell principles defensively, Texas will not score in bunches against you. That includes keeping the ball in front of you, communicating, and seeing the ball and man. For the most part K-State was solid in those areas in the first half. On a couple of occasions, K-State’s defender guarding the player in the corner did get caught ball watching and gave up back door cuts to the basket.

At the under 12 timeout, K-State had not turned the ball over once and Texas had five turnovers. However, the Wildcats quickly returned the favor with five turnovers of their own. K-State was called for a five second call on a sideline out of bounds play, as the other four players on the floor were too slow recognizing the initial action was not there. Mike McGuirl made a good read coming off a double screen, as he flared to the corner when his defender went over the top of the screen, but he dropped the pass, which led to a turnover. On two subsequent possessions Makol Mawien was called for a moving screen, and Levi Stockard traveled near the basket. What makes those string of turnovers even more frustrating is they are due to a lack of focus or attention to detail.

K-State desperately needs Antonio Gordon and Montavious Murphy to knock down some open shots. There are many possessions where they are the ones ending up with the wide open look. I am still in favor of K-State involving Xavier Sneed as much as then can in their screen, roll, and replace actions. However, when the Wildcats have either Gordon or Murphy on the floor at the four, they are the one teams are leaving open for the corner three. Unless one of them can start making some more shots - or K-State is willing to play small more - they will continue to have a guy on the floor the defense does not honor.

An effort play hurt K-State on Texas’s first possession of the second half. Matt Coleman was able to get a shot off in the lane against Cartier Diarra. It wasn’t bad defense initially, but Diarra stood and watched instead of fighting to get back into position for a defensive rebound. This allowed Coleman to follow his own miss, and led to Mawien’s third foul less than a minute in the half.

From there, sure, you can find some things K-State did wrong defensively, but it was all about the offense.

One stretch during the 20-2 Texas run summed things up for the Wildcats offensively. On one possession Diarra dribbled the ball on the left wing with little to no movement elsewhere on the floor until there were less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, which ultimately led to a shot clock violation when Sloan couldn’t get a shot off. On the next possession Sneed, who continues to give great effort, attempted to go one on one and had his baseline jumper blocked. Texas got another block against Diarra driving to the rim, which led to another shot clock violation.

Simply put, K-State finds itself buried in a hole.

The loss leaves the Wildcats 0-3 in the Big 12 despite not having played what appears to be any of the league's best four teams. This also represented the first league loss where K-State didn't have a shot in the final minute. And, to be fair, K-State didn't have a shot in the final 13 minutes.

The overall record officially falls below .500 at 7-8, and it occurs with the Wildcats heading into perhaps the most daunting part of their schedule:

K-State will hit the floor again Wednesday to open a three-game stretch against three of the Big 12's best in Texas Tech, West Virginia and Kansas. The Red Raiders entered the day 10-4 overall and ranked No. 22 in the nation, but a loss at No. 17 West Virginia handed Tech it's fifth loss of the season and will likely drop Chris Beard's team out of the Top 25.

Still, it's the start of what should be a very, very challenging sequence of games for this K-State team, especially coming off such a humbling defeat.

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