OKLAHOMA CITY - Jacob Pullen got knocked to the floor, his hip aching and his Kansas State team stuck in an early hole on the same floor where the NCAA tournament’s biggest upset had just taken place.

When he refused to stay down, so did his Wildcats.

Pullen scored 20 of his career-high 34 points in the first half to help rally No. 2 seed Kansas State back from an early 10-point deficit, and the Wildcats turned away Jimmer Fredette and BYU 84-72 on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“I just couldn’t sit there and watch us play,” Pullen said. “Unless something was broken (or) I couldn’t walk, man, I would have gotten back up and tried to play.”

Behind Pullen’s standout effort on both ends of the floor, the Wildcats (28-7) are doing something they didn’t do even when No. 2 NBA draft pick Michael Beasley was on the team two years ago — moving into the third round of the NCAAs.

K-State coach Frank Martin and his athletic team will face the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 3 seed Pittsburgh and sixth-seeded Xavier next weekend in Salt Lake City. The last time the school made it that far came in 1988, when Mitch Richmond was completing his college career before moving on to the NBA.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Pullen said. “It’s a childhood dream. I’ve watched basketball my whole life. I watched all of the NCAA tournaments since I was a kid, so for me to be able to be in this position, I thank Frank all the time. It’s an amazing thing that he was able to give me the opportunity.

“My recruitment wasn’t crazy. I didn’t have a million schools knocking on my door. I had some mid-major schools and then I had Frank walking through my door and telling me I could play.”

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Martin, the Wildcats’ fire-breathing coach, recalled how Pullen had been largely responsible for the Wildcats’ early exit from the tournament in Beasley’s only year at K-State. He was charged with stopping Wisconsin’s Trevon Hughes, who matched his career high with 25 points in a 72-55 rout.

But Pullen came back and accepted Martin’s discipline and structure, and committed to working hard to make the Wildcats better. Pullen called it his way of paying Martin back for believing in him.

“You live for the moment where you get around guys like him,” Martin said.

Pullen came alive with a scoring flurry shortly after he and Fredette got tangled up in transition in the first half, scoring Kansas State’s final 11 points of the first half to build 41-31 lead after the Wildcats had fallen behind 10-0 to start the game. BYU never got closer than five in the second half.

Pullen ended up surpassing 30 points for the third time in his career while matching a career best with seven 3-pointers. Equally as important was his physical defense against Fredette, who had scored 37 points to get the seventh-seeded Cougars (30-6) past Florida in double overtime in the first round.

Fredette finished with 21 points on 4-of-13 shooting, breaking his string of three straight games with at least 30 points.