West Virginia had the game against Kansas within its grasp but couldn’t overcome mistakes.

Leading by 10 on two separate occasions in the first half, the Mountaineers watched as things slipped away in an avalanche of miscues. West Virginia shot 28-percent in the second half and had a stretch of 8:49 without making a field goal going 0-11 during that span.

The Mountaineers turned the ball over nine times in the second half, while being outscored by the Jayhawks 36-23 during that frame. Obviously the defense of Kansas had a say in it, but the Mountaineers also missed a number of makeable shots.

“I wouldn’t say they shot us down, I’d say we shot ourselves in the foot,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “We missed so many two-footers. We missed step-in shots.”

The struggles from the foul line continued as well as West Virginia only connected on 12-22. But even with all of that, the Mountaineers only fell 60-53 in a place they had never won the game after losing the seven before that.

West Virginia’s struggles weren’t just on the offensive end as they allowed Kansas to get loose in the middle of the floor and finish uncontested at the rim.

It’s a learning lesson for a young team that is still finding itself. But to be down only a possession in the waning moments despite all of those struggles makes the result even more impressive. Especially when you consider that the only double-figure scorers were true freshmen.

“It’s a testament to the fact they play hard and they try to do the right things. We’ve got to get that fixed by Monday,” Huggins said.

Some of that could be remedied by getting everybody on the same page. That can come through accountability on the defensive end as well as each other.

“When you forget what you’re supposed to do or just don’t do it, you let your teammate down, you let your team down,” he said.

Now for West Virginia to get to the point where they can win these contests it starts with trying to do things collectively the same at all times.

“We can’t hard hedge one ball screen and not hard hedge the next ball screen,” Huggins said.

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