Markquis Nowell had 17 points and 14 assists, and No. 3 seed Kansas State held off 14th-seeded Montana State 77-65 Friday night for its first NCAA Tournament win since knocking off Kentucky in 2018 to reach the Elite Eight.

The two Wildcat programs will meet again in a rematch on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum. Kentucky, the sixth seed, defeated No. 11 Providence 61-53 in the earlier game.

Nowell and fellow third-team Associated Press All-American Keyontae Johnson, who had 18 points and eight rebounds, proved too much for the Bobcats to handle.

RaeQuan Battle had 26 points on 9 of 17 shooting for Montana State (25-10), which had its eight-game win streak snapped.

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Kansas State (24-9) led Montana State 34-28 at the break. The Wildcats stretched the lead to 13 with 11 minutes remaining when Desi Sills scored on a layup off an inbounds pass under his own basket after a botched defensive assignment.

Montana State went to a 1-3-1 defense, which disrupted the Wildcats for a short time, and helped cut the lead to eight before Nowell buried a deep 3-pointer from the left wing and Nae'Qwan Tomlin scored off a lob to push the lead back to 13.

Montana State wouldn't quit, though, with Darius Brown knocking down a 3 with 2:44 left.

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But Tomlin, who finished with 13 points, answered with another dunk off after Nowell threaded the needle with his 14th assist, the most ever by a Kansas State player in an NCAA Tournament game.

David N'Guessan added two technical foul free throws and then scored on an inside layup. Sills punctuated the win with a breakaway left-handed dunk giving the Wildcats a 16-point lead.

BIG PICTURE

Montana State: The Bobcats were looking for a better showing after losing by 35 points in the opening round of last year's tournament to Texas Tech, and they got it. The Big Sky champions showed they could compete on the NCAA Tournament stage but, in the end, didn't have the size to compete with the Wildcats. Montana State was outscored 48-30 in the paint.

Kansas State: The Wildcats had some concerns coming into the tournament after back-to-back losses to West Virginia and TCU. It was a struggle at times, but the Wildcats finished with a flurry to seal the win.

UP NEXT

Kansas State beat Kentucky 61-58 on March 22, 2018, for its first win over the Wildcats in 10 tries.

UFC fighter Jeff Molina came out as bisexual shortly after a video of him performing oral sex on another man leaked online.

Molina made the announcement on his Twitter account on Friday.

"Welp.. this f---ing sucks," he began his message, which was shared through two photos of the notes section from his iPhone. "[Too Long; Didn't Read]: im bi."

"Not the way I wanted to do this but the chance to do it when I was ready was taken from me," he continued.

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"I've tried keeping my dating life from social media," Molina wrote. "I've dated girls my whole life and suppressed feelings I had throughout high school being on the wrestling team, throughout college pursuing MMA, and even after making part of the dream happen and getting into the UFC.

Molina added he was hoping he would come out later in life, claiming that the "majority" of UFC fans are "homophobic."

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"The thought of my buddies, teammates, and ppl I look up to looking at me different let alone treating me different for something I can't control was something I couldn't fathom. In a sport like this where a majority of the fans being the homophobic c-cksuckers they are I didn't see myself doing this during this part of my career."

Molina added that he wanted to be known for his skills and what he has dedicated the past 11 years of his life to – not the "bi ufc fighter" that he figured would just be translated to the "gay ufc fighter."

The fighter said that the person who leaked the video is "awful" and "disturbed."

"At the end of the day I know my character, morals, and who I am as a person. As much as I'm hated/sh-tted on I'm getting an equal amount of support & it means a f-ck ton."

The 25-year-old is 11-2 in his 13 fights, four of which he has won by knockout, another four by submission, and the other three by decision.

Molina has never been knocked out - he's had one loss each via submission and decision.

He's won his last 10 fights, but has not been in the octagon since June 4 of last year.

Garcia is believed to be the first non-heterosexual UFC fighter.