Kansas State seeks tighter defense when facing Cleveland State

Kansas State will look to get off to a fast start when it hosts Cleveland State on Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, Kan.

The Wildcats beat New Orleans 89-65 in their home opener on Tuesday. David N'Guessan had a double-double with game highs of 21 points and 15 rebounds. The senior wing had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the first half.

But the Wildcats faced a 10-point deficit midway through the first half. With New Orleans staked to a 25-15 lead, Kansas State found an offensive spark and went on a 29-7 run to close the first half and take control of the game.

New Orleans drilled four of its first seven field goals, including 3-of-4 shooting on 3-pointers. While N'Guessan supplied the offensive energy and rebounding effort, Wildcats coach Jerome Tang said there's plenty of room for the Kansas State defense to improve.

"I think (N'Guessan) paid attention to the scouting report," Tang said. "We felt like we could impact them on the glass offensively, and man, he did. He set the tone early when we were struggling. We can't be a team where our offense is dictated by our offense, and right now we get energy from seeing the ball going through the hoop, and we have to correct that."

Cleveland State (1-1) dropped its season opener at Michigan 101-53 on Monday but bounced back Wednesday with a 91-53 win against Division III Baldwin Wallace. Dylan Arnett leads the Vikings with 13 points per game and has pulled down a team-best nine rebounds per game.

Cleveland State has posted three straight 20-win seasons after going 19-8 in 2020-21. Daniyal Robinson is the first Cleveland State men's basketball head coach to win 20 games in each of his first two seasons.

"We set out to have a great nonconference schedule to challenge our guys to get ready for league play," said Robinson, who has a 43-30 mark with the Vikings, including 21-15 overall and 11-9 in the Horizon League last season.

--Field Level Media