MANHATTAN — It was far from perfect, but at least Kansas State’s basketball team is in the win column.

The Wildcats raced to an early lead, turned back a Bellarmine rally in the second half, and cruised to a relatively stress-free 83-75 victory over the Knights on Friday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

K-State is now 1-1, while Bellarmine fell to 0-2.

“I’m thankful for the win tonight,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “I thought we played about 12 minutes the way we’re capable of playing and want to play. It was about eight in the first half and four in the second half, and so now we can roll from there.

“A lot of work we still have to do and we’ll forge ahead.”

Tylor Perry scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, while Cam Carter had 15 of his 17 before intermission to lead a balanced K-State attack. The Wildcats also got 12 points each from freshman guard Dai Dai Ames and forward Arthur Kaluma.

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David N’Guessan led the Wildcats to a 38-32 rebounding advantage with nine, with Kaluma grabbing seven and Will McNair six.

Bash Wieland had 17 points and seven rebounds for Bellarmine, while Landon Hatton added 14 and five rebounds, all in the first half.

K-State returns to action on Monday at Bramlage with a 7 p.m. game against South Dakota State.

Here are three takeaways from the Wildcats’ first victory of the season.

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Cam Carter assuming alpha dog role for Wildcats

Tang said before the season started that he Carter to take on more of a scoring role for the Wildcats this year after averaging 6.5 points last season. Carter has taken it to heart.

After scoring 15 points in the opener against Southern California, Carter matched that number in the first half alone, knocking down 6 of 10 shots, including two 3-pointers before the break. He was 7 of 14 for the game and finished with 17 points, four rebounds.

Carter also was a menace on defense, collecting four steals, three in in the first half.

Dai Dai Ames announces his presence

K-State freshman guard Dai Dai Ames was the first Wildcat off the bench and made an immediate impact, hitting his first four shots with three 3-pointers in the first eight-plus minutes.

Ames was unable to sustain the torrid pace, missing his last five shots, but led the Wildcats with six assists.

“My three-ball was working for me and I got my teammates involved,” Ames said of his fast start. “My first game (at Bramlage), it was exciting.”

Ames came on for Perry, who hit an early 3-pointer but was quiet the rest of the half. Perry, a graduate transfer from North Texas who also led the Wildcats with 22 points in the opener against USC, said he was impressed with Ames.

“He’s going to be so much better in the next couple of years. I’m glad I got to take him under my wing this year so he can learn as much as can. I’m excited to have him on my team.

Wildcat defense a work in progress

K-State did force nine first-half turnovers, but also gave Bellarmine plenty of open looks as the Knights shot 48.1% in the first half with four 3-pointers.

The Wildcats had no answer for Knights forward Langdon Hatton, who had 14 points and five rebounds at intermission. Hatton did not score in the second half, but Bash Wieland took over.

Bellarmine shot 48% for the game.

“Our defense has to get better,” Tang said. “We can’t allow teams to shoot 48%, and USC like 50-some percent. We can’t do that.”

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @arnegreen.