No. 12/11 West Virginia (17-4, 5-3) avenged its previous defeat to Kansas State (9-12, 2-6) by beating the Wildcats, 66-57, Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.
With the win, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins now has 877 career wins, surpassing legendary University of Kentucky head coach Adolph Rupp for seventh all-time in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. He is now two wins away from tying Dean Smith for sixth all-time.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 5-2 lead early on thanks to a three-pointer from Emmitt Matthews and two free throws from Oscar Tshiebwe. Kansas State then tied the game up with a three-point play from DaJuan Gordon. Another three-point play, this one from David Sloan, gave the Wildcats an 8-5 lead with just under 17 minutes left in the half.
With Kansas State leading by a score of 9-5, West Virginia scored five straight points to regain the lead at 10-9. This small run was capped off with a three-point play from Derek Culver.
After a three-pointer from Montavious Murphy put Kansas State ahead, 14-11, the Mountaineers responded with a 14-2 run to take a 25-16 lead with 5:27 left until halftime. The run was capped off by a three-pointer from Brandon Knapper.
Kansas State then managed to trim its deficit down to just two points at 27-25 with the help of a 9-2 run.
After the two teams exchanged layups, Matthews made 1-of-2 free throws at the line with six seconds left in the first half to give the Mountaineers a 30-27 halftime lead.
Halftime Stats:
Xavier Sneed sunk a pair of free throws to narrow the West Virginia lead down to just a point to start the second half. Chase Harler responded with a three-pointer for West Virginia and Culver followed that up with a jump shot of his own to extend the Mountaineers’ lead to six points at 35-29.
The two teams went back-and-forth, but it was West Virginia that would take a seven-point lead after a layup from Culver that was assisted by Sean McNeil with 12:03 remaining.
This basket from Culver began a 9-0 run for the Mountaineers that extended their lead to 14 points at 49-35 with nine minutes to go.
Kansas State narrowed the West Virginia lea down into single digits with four free throws later on, but Miles McBride would knock down a three-pointer to put the Mountaineers up by 11 points with 5:35 left to play.
The Wildcats continued to fight back and again cut their deficit down into single digits at 56-48 after a three-pointer from Cartier Diarra.
Harler hit jump shot and a three-pointer later on for the Mountaineers to make it an 11-point game with less than two minutes left and from there, West Virginia was able to hold off Kansas State to get the victory.
The Mountaineers will host Iowa State Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET.
Final Stats:
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