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Kansas State redshirt freshman Bill Walker celebrates a play as USC's Keith Wilkinson looks on in disbelief during their first-round game Thursday. Walker scored 22 points in the Wildcats' 80-67 win.

Mayo simply couldn’t shake Sutton and the rest of the Wildcats’ defenders, who played defense with an intensity that belied their youth. And the inside game evaporated when Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson piled up one foul after another trying to stop Beasley; both of them wound up fouling out.

“The man-to-man defense was aggressive,” said Mayo, who never got in much of a groove after missing his first three shots. “They got us out of the flow of our offense. Maybe certain shots we took were rushed, and give credit to Kansas State. They did a great job on the defensive end.”

Jefferson had 15 points and Gibson 10, but they were manhandled on the boards. Kansas State had a 44-27 rebounding lead, including 21 at the offensive end to set up 22 second-chance points. The Trojans had three second-chance points.

“We wanted to get every loose board, dominate the boards,” the fiery Walker said. “When you do that, you control the game.”

USC rallied in the second half, actually pulling ahead for the first time since the opening minute when Mayo stole a pass from Clent Stewart, drove in for the layup and was fouled. The free throw gave the Trojans a 48-47 lead with 13:06 remaining.

It was short lived. The Wildcats went right back to Beasley, who drew the foul and made both free throws to reclaim the lead for Kansas State. Pullen scored on a drive and Beasley followed with his fourth three-point play of the game, pushing the margin to 54-50.

The Wildcats pulled away from there. Walker hit a 3 from the corner for his first points of the second half, making it 67-58 with just under 5 minutes left. Beasley finished off the Trojans with a 3-pointer of his own that stretched it to 72-60.

Kansas State, which finished third in the rugged Big 12, slipped all the way to an 11th seed after losing six of its last nine games heading into the NCAAs, including a quarterfinal loss to Texas A&M in the conference tourney.

But the Kiddie Corps grew up just in the nick of time.

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