WICHITA, Kan. -- Wichita State senior Alex Harden had 22 points, including the final five, as the Shockers (6-2) held on to beat Kansas State (6-1) 51-48 in front of 3,536 fans Friday night inside Charles Koch Arena.
Up by as much as 13 with eight minutes remaining, K-State whittled away at the lead until back-to-back three-pointers by KSU's Haley Texada tied the game at 46-all with two minutes remaining.
Harden put WSU up, 48-46, with a jumper in the paint with 57 seconds remaining, and then put in the first of two free throws for a three-point WSU lead with 17 seconds left.
KSU's Ashia Woods put back a layup off a Wildcat miss to put the score back within one at 49-48, with six seconds left.
Harden was fouled on the inbounds play and made both free throws for another WSU three point lead, 51-48, that fashioned the final score.
Harden had her second-straight 20-plus point game, finishing with a game-high 22 points, while Michaela Dapprich backed her with 14 points. Jamillah Bonner led on the glass for WSU with six rebounds. She also had three assists and two steals on her 22nd birthday.
Three double-figure KSU scorers were led by Woods' 13 points. Six-foot-five Breanna Lewis had 12 points and six rebounds and Texada had 10.
To open the second half, Kansas State tied it up, 22-22, at 19:15, before Harden completed a
traditional three-point play at 18:11 for a 25-22 WSU lead.
WSU improved its lead to five, 29-24, on Jacobs and Harden field goals at 15:48, with the Shockers out-scoring the Wildcats, 13-7, in the first eight minutes of the second frame.
The Shockers improved their lead to 10, 39-29, on two-straight Harden jumpers, forcing a KSU timeout at the 10:20 mark.
A Bonner three from the left baseline with the shot clock running down, put WSU up 13, 42-29 with 8:10 left for their largest lead of the game.
In the first half, WSU got on the board for the first time at 15:40 with a Harden layup to tie it at 2-2 as both teams struggled in the paint before battling at both ends.
K-State struck first and went up six, 12-6, on a steal and layup by Lewis, the first of three six-point leads the Wildcats would have in the first seven minutes before WSU's offense got started.
Alie Decker's trey with 9:26 cut the lead to three, 12-9, and Michaela Dapprich followed with a layup to cut the lead to one, 12-11.
WSU went ahead by three on back-to-back Harden buckets, the second at the 6:49 mark. Two Jacobs free throws gave WSU it's largest lead at five, 17-12.
Back-to-back layups by Lewis cut WSU's lead to one, 17-16. The two teams traded baskets and Michaela Dapprich's layup put WSU ahead 22-18.
A Texada driving layup cut the Shocker lead to two, 22-20, at the 1:30 mark, which ended first half scoring.
Michaela Dapprich led WSU in scoring the first half with eight points, while Lewis also led the Wildcats with eight.
In the first half, KSU out-shot WSU, 38.1 percent (8-21) to 31.0 percent (9-29), while the Shockers missed eight shots under the basket and KSU missed six.
Wichita State is next in action Tues., Dec. 16, at Tennessee.
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