MANHATTAN, Kan. — P.J. Haggerty scored 34 points, Nate Johnson had a career-high 33, and Kansas State cruised past Baylor 90-74 on Tuesday night in the debut of Wildcats’ interim head coach Matthew Driscoll.

Kansas State (11-15, 2-11 Big 12) never trailed and held a double-digit lead for most of the second half to end a six-game skid. Driscoll replaced previous head coach Jerome Tang, who was fired Sunday night before completing his fourth season.

“Coach Driscoll and staff did a great job,” Bears coach Scott Drew said of his opponent. “I hated playing them right now.”

Johnson’s layup gave the Wildcats a 21-point lead with 10:39 left. He surpassed his previous career-best 31 points on a dunk with 1:37 remaining.

Haggerty made 15 of 23 shots from the field. Johnson was 11-of-16 shooting and made five of the Wildcats’ eight 3-pointers. Johnson also had nine assists and matched a career-high with six steals.

“I did not come to Kansas State to be the head coach,” Driscoll said. “Coach Tang and I are thicker than thieves. He is an amazing human being. He did amazing things at Kansas State.”

Isaac Williams IV scored 16 points to lead Baylor (13-13, 3-10), which has lost four straight. Tounde Yessoufou added 14 points for the Bears. Cameron Carr chipped in with 12 points and Dan Skillings Jr. scored 11. The Bears made only three of their 24 3-point attempts.

Johnson made four 3s and scored 16 points, and Haggerty added 13 points to help K-State build a 41-34 halftime advantage. The Wildcats made 5 of 11 from long range, and Baylor missed 11 of 12 attempts from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.

“I’m super proud of our staff and the way in which they dealt with this,” Driscoll said, “and obviously the players. Their resiliency and their ability to overcome a lot.”

Williams’ layup pulled the Bears to 66-57 with 8:20 left, but they didn’t get closer.

Driscoll will look to improve to 2-0 Saturday, when Kansas State faces No. 13 Texas Tech.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

AMES, Iowa — Nate Heise hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and Tamin Lipsey came up with a critical offensive rebound in the final seconds to cap No. 6 Iowa State‘s rally in a 70-67 victory over Big 12 Conference leader and second-ranked Houston on Monday night.

Heise was 3-for-3 from 3-point range hours after his sister, Taylor Heise, scored to help the U.S. women’s hockey team beat Sweden 5-0 to reach the gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

“Of all the games from him as a Cyclone, tonight stands out as the one that was most elite,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said of Heise. “The confidence he’s playing with is awesome.”

The Cyclones (23-3, 10-3) closed with a 17-4 run to take down a second top-10 team in three days. Iowa State felled No. 8 Kansas 74-56 at home Saturday.

Houston (23-3, 11-2) had its six-game winning streak ended, and the Cougars’ conference lead was cut to a half-game over No. 4 Arizona heading into their matchup Saturday in Houston. Iowa State is third in the Big 12, a game behind Houston.

Heise hit the trey from the left corner with 1:17 to play to give the Cyclones a 69-67 lead. Houston had two chances to tie or take the lead, but the Cougars were called for a shot clock violation with 43 seconds left and Chris Cenac Jr. missed a shot with four seconds left.

“I really think it was one of the easier mindset things, because you really got no other choice. You’re not going to be able to pass the ball; there’s not enough time,” Heise said of his preparation for the winner. “So, when you’ve got no other choice and it’s just kind of muscle memory, you just know how much is on the shot clock and what you’ve got to do.

“It really was the only option.”

Heise was asked about his family’s text message chain, given his sister’s accomplishments in Team USA’s win.

“It’ll be fun because I think they went to sleep before the [Iowa State] game started, so they’ll wake up to some fun texts,” he said. “Obviously, it was cool earlier when she scored a goal and they won and they’re on to the championship. So, pretty good day.”

Blake Buchanan was fouled after rebounding Cenac’s errant shot but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Lipsey managed to grab the offensive rebound and tapped the ball back to Joshua Jefferson, who was fouled with one second to go. Jefferson made his first free throw for the final margin.

Jefferson led Iowa State with 12 points. Heise put up 11 points, and Buchanan had 10.

“Iowa State’s good,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “It’s not an easy place to come in and win. I’m disappointed we didn’t win. I’m not disappointed in our effort.”

Kingston Flemings topped Houston with 22 points. Emanuel Sharp posted 16 points, all in the first half. Milos Uzan had 11 points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

If you find yourself being entertained by a ferocious fight between two women inside an MMA cage, you can thank two different women who have not been inside an MMA cage for a decade or more.

Ronda Rousey was singularly responsible for women fighting in the UFC. Gina Carano was largely responsible for women’s MMA being seen in the first place.

For those reasons, when Rousey and Carano return from long retirements to fight each other on May 16 in Inglewood, California, it will be an event of historic proportions. That is not to say it will be a good fight. Rousey is 39 years old and hasn’t competed since 2016. Carano, who will be 44 on fight night, will be stepping inside a cage for the first time since 2009.

Once upon a time, Rousey vs. Carano would have been a collision of the women’s MMA elite. That is not the case in 2026, not even close. What we have here is a spectacle — a sign of the times in combat sports.

Back when Rousey was the biggest star in the MMA, she achieved that stardom — and the lucrative earnings that came with it — by being the most dominant fighter in the sport, man or woman. In 2011, the same year that CEO Dana White said women would “never” fight in the UFC, “Rowdy Ronda” made her pro debut and launched a run of 12 consecutive finishes, all but one in the first round. Eight opponents didn’t last a minute. While turning White into a believer, Rousey developed the appeal of prime Mike Tyson, except in her case, fans tuned in to see not a quick knockout but a swift armbar.

Yet there might never have been a Rousey if there wasn’t a Carano, the trailblazer. Though she was not the first woman to compete in MMA — there are documented women’s bouts in North America going back to the 1990s — Carano was part of the first women’s bout in a major promotion, Strikeforce, in 2006. A year later, she fought on Showtime in the first televised women’s fight. And in 2009, Carano vs. Cris Cyborg was a Strikeforce main event, headlining over four men who went on to become champions in Strikeforce, Bellator or the UFC.

The combat sports world has changed dramatically in the nearly two decades since that August 2009 bout that turned out to be Carano’s retirement fight. Fighters no longer make a name for themselves solely with their combat skills. Many of the top MMA stars of today supercharge their careers with feisty words, outrageous antics and gimmicky matchups. Even those who’ve long retired can earn a hefty check by returning to entertain the masses in a fisticuffs show resembling a circus as much as a competition.

In the nearly 10 years since Rousey last put on the gloves, we’ve seen MMA stars cross over to boxing for unprecedented paydays, sparked by Conor McGregor and an out-of-retirement Floyd Mayweather Jr. making a fortune by sharing a dance in 2017. Social media visionary Jake Paul, whose Most Valuable Promotions will promote Rousey vs. Carano, made a cottage industry out of beating up MMA fighters who were fish out of water in a boxing ring. In 2024, Paul stepped into the ring with 58-year-old Tyson, who, despite once being the baddest man on the planet, looked just bad, man.

When each of the aforementioned bouts was announced, the first question was always “Why?” Now we have Rousey vs. Carano, and my reaction is “Why not?”

Well, Rousey has given us one reason why not. Two years ago, while promoting the publication of her memoir, “Our Fight,” she revealed a history of concussions, dating back to her time in judo, the sport in which she won a 2008 Olympic bronze medal. She had kept the head trauma a secret from the UFC and regulators, she said, “because it would literally put a target on my head and I might not have been allowed to compete any farther.”

ESPN reached out to California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster on Tuesday to inquire about additional testing the regulators might require of Rousey, but did not immediately hear back. Rousey appeared on “SportsCenter” on Tuesday and spoke of needing more recovery time after training sessions now compared to her years in the UFC, but she did not mention her concussion history.

If there’s a silver lining to this spectacle, Rousey and Carano will at least be competing in their own sport. There were recent reports that Rousey was angling to box two-division champion Katie Taylor, and no one really needed to see that to know how it would have turned out. This MMA bout does have a modicum of intrigue, if only to see what each woman has left after so many years out of the cage. Can Carano still throw hands well enough to present a threat that keeps the fight standing, or will Rousey swiftly shoot a takedown and armbar Carano without breaking a sweat?

But competitiveness is not the point of this event. This is an opportunity for two pioneers of women’s MMA to have a night in the spotlight they created. And presumably, a substantial purse will be involved.

Fighters don’t get a pension. Some prepare for a future outside the cage or ring, and some leave the sport penniless.

Carano did create a Hollywood future for herself. In the 17 years since she retired from MMA, she has appeared in more than a dozen films, including the sixth installment in the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Rousey has had parts in movies and TV, too, but her main stage has been WWE. She activated her retirement plan even before she left MMA, making a guest appearance at WrestleMania in 2014 while still UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

Speaking of the leading promotion in MMA, Rousey said on “SportsCenter” that she gauged the interest of White and “it didn’t exactly work out with the UFC.” That adds a layer of intrigue. White has predicted that the UFC’s event at the White House on June 14 will be “the most-watched UFC event ever.” Considering that Rousey, the biggest star in UFC history not named McGregor, has 16.8 million Instagram followers and Carano has 1.8 million, might this spectacle outshine the UFC’s date in the nation’s capital?

To say Rousey and Carano are not doing it for the money would be a hollow premise, of course, because this is prizefighting, where everything is for the money. But just by looking at the final notations on the two women’s fight résumés, it’s reasonable to conclude that money is not the sole motivation.

Carano walked away in 2009 after being bludgeoned by Cyborg. Rousey absorbed a shocking upset knockout at the hands — and shin — of Holly Holm in front of 56,000 fans in a stadium in Australia in 2015, and after a year spent out of the public eye, she returned to face Amanda Nunes and was knocked out in 48 seconds. For both Rousey and Carano, this return represents an opportunity to change the final chapter of the story.

Or will this fight lead to more chapters to come?