It was the same story, different chapter for Kansas State on Saturday against Texas.

The Wildcats fell behind big early - again - in a Big 12 Conference game, and K-State could never put itself in a position to challenge a struggling Longhorns team, even at home, in a 70-59 loss.

K-State trailed 42-23 at halftime despite being down 26-20 at one point.

We cover everything that happened in The Final at K-StateOnline.

1. Cartier Diarra starts

Cartier Diarra got another start for K-State to finish a week where there was some social media controversy created surrounding the fourth-year junior's sideline words with Bruce Weber in Wednesday night's loss in Lubbock.

Diarra got his first basket on a baseline drive to the hoop in the early minutes to pull K-State within one, and his second basket also came at the hoop with just less than 13 minutes left in the first half. The junior's third hoop was a triple, as his scoring was keeping K-State somewhat close early on; that basket made it 22-16 in favor of the visitors from Austin.

Diarra and K-State, of course, proved unable to stay close, but Diarra's mood, effort and production was not a story in this one.

2. Mawien's big game

It wasn't in a winning effort, but Makol Mawien was very solid against Texas.

The senior finished with a double-double against Horns of 14 points and 10 boards.

It's a game where it was difficult to find a great deal of bright spots, but Mawien was one of them. The second half was particularly strong for Mawien, considering he had just two points (1-of-5 shooting) and three boards in the opening 20 minutes.

That means in the second half Mawien was 5-of-8 for 12 points to go along with seven rebounds. Xavier Sneed, to his credit, added 11 points and five boards in his second half.

3. Three is NOT a magic number for K-State

K-State has regularly gotten dominated from 3-point range this season, and Saturday's game was certainly no different.

The Longhorns finished 8-of-19 from deep, compared to K-State's 3-of-14. That, obviously, is a difference of 15 points in a game with an 11-point margin.

Among the many things the Wildcats need to improve upon to field a more competitive team next season is both offense and defense from range, with a desperate need for more shooting itself.

4. Double points

K-State went with both Diarra and David Sloan in the starting lineup, putting a pair of point guards on the floor. There's no denying the fact the Wildcat offense continued to struggle in this one, but the production from Diarra and Sloan wasn't a big part of the problem.

The duo combined to go 7-of-17 (42%) from the field for 18 points. Not a huge game, no doubt, but decent efficiency. Diarra also added six assists against just two turnovers for a 3-to-1 ratio. Sloan, however, did turn it over three times without an assist.

There's no doubt these two on the floor together have the ability to help out K-State offensively, but you do have to wonder if the Wildcats struggles on defense as of late have any correlation to the increasing usage of these two on the floor at the same time.

I'm certainly not against the lineup and pairing, but it ultimately hasn't helped lead to any more wins at this point.

5. Another big deficit

K-State was down 26-20 with just less than seven minutes left in the first half before back-to-back Wildcat turnovers, and Texas baskets, made it a 10-point game. The Horns would then knock in a 3-pointer, their fourth on eight attempts at that point, to go up 13 points with 5:16 left in the first half.

A pair of UT free throws had the Horns up 15 less than a minute later. Two more free throws two minutes later had the deficit at 17, then a long two made it a 19-point game with K-State still stuck on 20 points (for five minutes and 20 seconds). That drought finally ended with a Levi Stockard free throw with 1:26 left in the first half.

Falling behind big early in a Big 12 game, unfortunately for the Wildcats, has become commonplace.

The biggest difference in this one, quite honestly, was the fact K-State never got back in it.

The second half turned into the ugly offensive game expected coming into this game; the problem was Texas torched the Cats in the first half for a 19 point lead.

The Cats ended up winning the TO rate but losing points off TOs 19-11. K-State dominated the offensive glass and outscored UT 12-2 on second chance points. K-State also got to the FT line an impressive 29 times, but only made 16.

The game wasn't really as close as the final score, as Texas coasted to win by 11 after posting a 63-45 lead with six-and-a-half minutes remaining.

Sneed and Mawien ended with decent numbers but at halftime were a combined 2-of-9 with only six points. Diarra took more of a distributor role and finished with a nice assist to turnover ratio, but the Cats need his scoring. Sloan got to the rim early but ended with no assists, and his pair of TOs in the first half sparked a 13-0 run by Texas. DaJuan Gordon had a decent afternoon and Antonio Gordon had a nice rebounding day, but he - along with Stockard and McGuirl - had inefficient offensive games.

FAN'S THREE TAKEAWAYS

1. The defense was fine in the second half, but the game was basically decided by Texas putting up an incredible 1.25 efficiency and 72.9% eFG% in the first half. This team isn't going to suddenly become an efficient offense, so when the defense slips like that it will be impossible for this team to win.

2. The shooting continues to fall. This is now 6-of-8 games shooting 30% or worse from three. When the twos drop below 40% - like they did today - this offense has no chance. Throw in turnovers on 1/4 of the possessions, and it doesn't matter how well you hit the offensive glass or get to the FT line.

3. Losing out is within reach. I didn't really envision a season below .500, but winning single digit games is now realistic. K-State could match the 11 game losing streak in 1999-00 by losing out the regular season and surpass it with a loss in Kansas City.

TRADITIONAL STATS PROVIDED BY KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

While the Wildcats had two bad turnovers that led to Texas run outs, they did play with good pace and purpose in their half-court offense early in the game.

After a nice drive to the rim by David Sloan going to his left off a brush screen from Xavier Sneed resulted in a basket, K-State ran Cartier Diarra off a staggered screen. Diarra made the correct read and flared to the corner for an open three. He missed the shot, but Antonio Gordon tracked down the offensive rebound. After Sneed made a good hard cut to the free throw line, Makol Mawien ducked in from the weak side for a high low look.

On the next possession, Sloan pushed the ball up the court and Mawien, who was trailing the play, immediately set a ball screen to keep the pressure on the defense. Sloan quickly reversed the ball to A. Gordon who kept the ball moving with a pass to Diarra in the corner. A. Gordon followed his pass with a ball screen, and Diarra made the correct read to reject the screen and drive baseline. This sequence was a great illustration of the impact it can have on the defense when you initiate offense before they have a chance to settle in and then move the ball quickly from one side of the floor to the other.

It seems like K-State has a stretch in every game where their lack of situational awareness, spatial awareness, or a simple lack of attention to detail kills the Wildcats.

You cannot have lazy cuts followed by lazy passes anywhere on the court, let alone at the top of the key to initiate your offense. You have to know who you are closing out to. If a guy, who is a 16% 3-point shooter on the season, wants to shoot a triple that’s a good shot for the defense. K-State did not show this awareness, today.

A guy who is extremely left-handed dominant should not get a straight line drive to the basket with his left hand. You should know that if an offensive player has the ball on the perimeter and is dribbling at the man you are guarding, a back cut may be coming.

Basketball is a tough game. Mistakes are going to happen. But it’s the unforced mental mistakes that really, really hurt. And today, the string of mistakes affected this team’s competitive spirit.

***Subscribe to K-StateOnline by clicking here***

Talk K-State football and basketball in the largest, most active K-State message board community anywhere, The Foundation.