Postgame: K-State 86, Wazzu 69

It was the biggest crowd of the season, it was the loudest crowd of the season and for the Kansas State basketball team it was the best game of the season.

The Wildcats led from start to finish and easily defeated Pac-10 foe Washington State 86-69 on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.

Some will say that's incredible improvement, considering K-State struggled to put away Fort Hays State just a few days ago. But this Wildcats squad looked nothing like it did earlier in the week.

Players and coaches said they had some great practices leading up to the game and once they took the floor the energetic crowd at Bramlage was very easy to feed off of.

Hearing their coach say Washington State's Klay Thompson could score "146" points against them was good motivation as well.

The Wildcats used all of those things to their advantage on Saturday. They came out pumped up, scored the first seven points of the game and made Thompson look silly the first few times he touched the ball.

During Thompson's first trip to the free-throw line, he had been whistled for traveling so many times that the student section chanted -- what else? -- "travel, travel, travel" at him.

He finished with nine turnovers.

The nation's second-leading scorer ended up scoring a game-high 22 points, but few of them mattered. With Reggie Moore and his 16 points as the Cougars' only other scoring threat, they could not match K-State.

Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente scored 21 a piece and Dominique Sutton added 16. Pullen's scoring was consistent, Clemente's shots were timely (five treys in the second half) and Sutton's were energy boosters.

All three players looked great with the ball in their hands.

Pullen, though, has looked great all season. He has now scored at least 20 points in four straight games.

Emptying the notebook:
-- Frank Martin picked up the first technical foul of his tenure at K-State for arguing with officials over a whistle given to Jamar Samuels while trying to contest a dunk. On the play, Samuels went up and appeared to cleanly swat the ball away from Moore. But the officials didn't see it that way. Martin started screaming and had to be restrained by his assistants. That emotional outburst turned out to be beneficial. It really fired up his team.

-- Wally Judge received his first start of his collegiate career. He scored three points and grabbed four rebounds in 19 minutes. Martin said he earned the start by practicing hard through the week.

-- K-State scored 39 points off turnovers, which is the highest total the Wildcats have recorded since they started keeping track of the statistic in 2005.

-- Pullen was perfect from the free-throw line, making all 11 of his foul shots.

-- With the win, Martin recorded his 50th victory at K-State. He is the third-fastest coach in Wildcats history to reach that number.

Player of the game: Dominique Sutton. The junior had an all-around good game. Sixteen points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. He was tough on the court and seemed to be at the center of every crowd-energizing play.

Play of the game: Washington State cut K-State's lead to 15 early in the second half, but Denis Clemente immediately hit a three-pointer to shift momentum back in the Wildcats' favor. It was his first of the night, but he went on to drain four more.

Do this again: Start and end the game with a high energy level.

Try to avoid: The 50 fouls called by the officials seemed a bit excessive, and made for a very long game that was never truly in doubt.

Bottom line: We have seen what the Wildcats can do when they play with intensity for 40 minutes, and it is good.