Las Vegas ― For the second day in a row, the Syracuse Orange fought toe-to-toe with a heavily favored opponent, only to come up short of a big win.

One day after dropping a 78-74 overtime decision to No. 3 Houston, Syracuse fell 71-60 to Kansas on the second day of the Players Era Festival at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena.

Making Syracuse’s performances even more remarkable is the Orange played without leading scorer Donnie Freeman, who is out with an injury to his right foot.

Kansas pulled away late, outscoring Syracuse 19 to 10 over the game’s final six minutes.

Syracuse’s record fell to 4-2 with the loss. The Orange will now wait to see if it plays on either Wednesday or Thursday, in addition to which team it will face in the final round of games of the Players Era Festival.

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Tyler Betsey led Syracuse with 12 points, but the sophomore forward was 4-for-13 from the field. JJ Starling was 3-for-13 en route to his 10 points.

Syracuse couldn’t find any consistency on offense the entire game.

The Orange made field goals on consecutive possessions just once; on its first two possessions of the game.

After that, Syracuse’s scoring came in a herky-jerky fashion. There was never any flow or rhythm.

The Orange’s offensive problems weren’t helped by its continued poor shooting from the foul line. After making only 12 out of 29 free throws in Monday’s overtime loss to Houston, Syracuse went 13-for-23 at the line against Kansas. Some of those misses came on the front end of one-and-one opportunities, costing the Orange more points.

Kansas, on the other hand, went 18-for-20 at the free throw line.

But the Orange scrapped and clawed and somehow stayed in the game.

After trailing by nine points at halftime, Syracuse trimmed Kansas’ lead down to 46-40 on Kiyan Anthony’s three-point play with 13 minutes remaining.

Syracuse could have made it closer but failed to score on two straight possessions, including one that offered two chances to score, but Nate Kingz missed a 3-pointer and Naithan George couldn’t convert in the lane on the follow-up.

However, Syracuse, which had struggled to find consistent scoring for most of the game, went cold again. Two empty Syracuse possessions were bracketed by a Kansas 3-pointer and another traditional three-point play, giving the Jayhawks a 52-41 lead.

Syracuse refused to go away though. Orange center William Kyle fought his way to an offensive rebound and then slammed the ball back through a bruised rim. Then Starling swished a 3-pointer and, suddenly, the Kansas lead was down to 52-47.

Betsey, who had been cold all night, got the Orange to within 52-50 with a 3-pointer at the 6-minute mark.

But Kansas responded with an 11-0 run to which Syracuse had no answer.

Kansas and Syracuse both played without their star players. SU’s Freeman is out with an injured right foot, while Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson, who many project as the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, is dealing with hamstring issues.

Kansas entered Tuesday’s game unranked with a 4-2 record. However, KenPom.com rated the Jayhawks, whose losses came against North Carolina and Duke, at No. 22.

The Syracuse players lacked the physical energy and mental sharpness that they displayed in Monday’s near-upset of Houston.

Kansas took a 34-25 halftime lead after holding Syracuse to 31% field goal shooting and crushing the Orange on the boards with 26 rebounds to just 11 for SU. The Orange was fortunate that Kansas only turned those extra opportunities into 12 points.

The Orange struggled to score against Kansas, especially when attacking the basket. The Syracuse players kept running into Kansas big men Flory Bidunga and Bryce Tiller.

When Syracuse couldn’t create any good looks, the Orange settled for 3-pointers. For the half, Syracuse went 3-for-12 from long rang. Betsey, who made four 3-pointers against Houston, made only one of his seven shots from outside the 3-point line in the first half on Tuesday.

Syracuse’s defense, which was so aggressive and quick against Houston, seemed a step slower against Kansas. The Jayhawks made 14 of their 29 field goal attempts in the first half.

The Colorado Buffaloes are 3-8 with one game remaining in the regular season, a road contest against the Kansas State Wildcats. On Sunday, the kickoff time for Colorado vs. Kansas State was announced for 10 a.m. MT on Saturday, Nov. 29, and the game will be broadcast on FS1. Accustomed to playing the evening games, Colorado will have an early one on the road against Kansas State.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders and his team have failed to meet expectations in 2025, but they are building towards the future with quarterback Julian Lewis taking over the offense as a true freshman. On the other side, Kansas State has also had a rather unexpected season under third-year starting quarterback Avery Johnson.

The Wildcats are 5-6 after nearly upsetting the No. 12 Utah Utes, meaning Kansas State will be playing Colorado with bowl eligibility on the line. Can “Coach Prime” and the Buffaloes spoil Kansas State’s final home game of the season?

The Wildcats offense is known to use Johnson as a runner, a matchup that could give the Colorado defense fits.

Colorado trailed Arizona State 21-17 entering the fourth quarter, but the Sun Devils scored 21 unanswered points in the final frame to beat the Buffaloes 42-17. Arizona State started their run with a fumble by Colorado running back Ronald Coleman, and the Sun Devils never looked back.

Arizona State running back Raleek Brown rushed for 255 yards on 22 carries as Colorado’s defense again struggled to stop the run. Sanders addressed some of the Buffs’ issues after the game:

“Defensively, we’ve got to do much better. We forced turnovers, and offensively, we got to score. Didn’t do any of that. It’s tough. It’s tough to think that we don’t have more in the tank to come up with some things to take advantage of those situations. And that’s situational football, we got to be much better than that, and we weren’t. We weren’t, and we aren’t.”

MORE: What Deion Sanders Said About History With Arizona State Coach Kenny Dillingham

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Sanders also spoke about Lewis’ development as a true freshman. The young quarterback finished with 161 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 50 percent of his attempts.

“He’s a good kid, he’s a good young man. He has a bright future ahead of him. We can’t just take this game and berate him or whatever, because I think he did some wonderful things last week. He did some wonderful things this week, but you got to understand, he’s a freshman playing against a really good football team, and we’ve just got to do better at capitalizing on certain downs,” Sanders said.

According to FanDuel, Kansas State is favored by 17.5 points over Colorado. The moneyline for the Buffaloes to pull off the upset is currently +680, and the points total is set at 51.5.

AMES — Iowa State football won its second straight game on Nov. 22.

The Cyclones took down Kansas, 38-14, in the final home game of the season, two weeks after beating TCU (which was followed by an off week). Matt Campbell’s squad now sits at 7-4 overall and 4-4 against Big 12 opponents.

Here are five numbers that tell the story of Iowa State’s win over the Jayhawks.

1 … as in Aiden Flora’s first rushing touchdown of the season

There were plenty of big moments in Iowa State’s victory over Kansas, with 15 plays accounting for 293 offensive yards gained. And it was a group effort in the ground game: Carson Hansen with 120 rushing yards (and one touchdown), Abu Sama with 67 yards and Flora with 51.

Flora, a redshirt freshman running back who typically serves as a kick and punt returner, put the exclamation point on Iowa State’s win, running 38 yards into the end zone for the Cyclones’ fifth touchdown of the game. He had a punt-return touchdown in the win against TCU.

More: Iowa State football report card vs Kansas, grading the Cyclones’ win

2 … as in Iowa State has won two straight games

The Cyclones have experienced a series of streaks this year: five wins, four losses and now two wins. Iowa State beat TCU on the road a couple of weeks ago and – coming off the bye week – the Cyclones took down Kansas in the final game at Jack Trice Stadium this season.

3 … as in three penalties called against Iowa State

The Cyclones played a mostly penalty-free game, in contrast to some of their flag-filled contests this season. There were only three penalties called against Iowa State: false start against Jim Bonifas, holding against Brendan Black and pass interference against Marcus Neal.

Of those calls, two came in the third quarter and one came in the fourth, and they cost the Cyclones 30 yards in total.

More: Travis Hines’ rapid reactions from Iowa State win over Kansas

7 … as in seven passes broken up by Iowa State’s defense

Kansas couldn’t get much of anything going on offense, with the Cyclones defense making it a challenge. Seven different players accounted for the seven pass break-ups: Carson Van Dinter, Kooper Ebel, Tre Bell, David Coffey, Quentin Taylor, Beni Ngoyi and Hunter Sowell.

Marcus Neal also came down with an interception, his second of the season.

10 … as in Rocco Becht went 10-of-10 to start the game

It’s been an up-and-down season for the Iowa State quarterback, and that was evident in Becht’s performance against Kansas. He completed his first 10 pass attempts, going without an incompletion through the first quarter and into the second quarter.

That streak snapped when Leroy Harris III tipped a pass and Becht threw two more incompletions – with another one broken up, this time by Trey Lathan – on the final drive of the second quarter.

Becht finished with a 78% completion rate, going 18-of-23 for 241 yards and three touchdowns – with no interceptions.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.