WVU loses big lead, falls to Kansas State, 71-69
SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
West Virginia (8-7, 0-3) had its losing streak extended to three games as the Mountaineers suffered a 71-69 defeat in the hands of Kansas State (11-4, 1-2) on the road.
The Mountaineers got off to a hot start and led by as much as 21 points during the second half Wednesday night. Kansas State rallied back and outscored West Virginia, 50-33, during the second half to hand West Virginia its third consecutive loss.
West Virginia was led by Lamont West’s 21 points and 17 points from Derek Culver as Barry Brown led the Wildcats with 29 points.
The first basket of the game didn’t come until the 17:22 mark during the first half as West Virginia went up 2-0 with a dunk from Wesley Harris. Prior to this, the two teams combined for five fouls and four missed shots.
West Virginia would then jump out to a 5-1 lead with a three-pointer from Jordan McCabe but the Wildcats cut it to two points with a layup from Brown.
A 15-0 run from the Mountaineers followed which included three Lamont West three three-pointers and one from Chase Harler as well as jumper from Culver and a free throw from Harris.
Kansas State was held scoreless for over seven minutes and started off shooting just 1-of-11 from the field and 1-of-6 from the free throw line. A pair of free throws from Brown ended West Virginia’s run and a dunk from Kansas State’s Austin Trice made it 20-7 in favor of the Mountaineers.
West Virginia maintained its double-digit lead over the next few minutes despite a 6-0 run from Kansas State that included back-to-back three’s.
Jermaine Haley would end Kansas State’s run with a three-pointer of his own to extend West Virginia’s lead to 15 points with just under three minutes left until halftime.
The Mountaineers would take a 36-21 lead at halftime and finished the first half shooting 44 percent from the field to Kansas State’s 29 percent. West Virginia’s bench scored 25 first half points and the team held a 21-11 advantage against Kansas State in rebounds despite losing the first half turnover battle, 6-3.
Esa Ahmad scored his first points of the game to open the second half as the Mountaineers started off the game’s final 20 minutes on a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 42-21. The Wildcats, though, would respond with a 17-0 run and trailed by just four points at 42-38 with 13:07 left to play.
Back-and-forth scoring between the two teams followed and West would help extend West Virginia’s lead to seven points with two more three-pointers. Brown came through for Kansas State again and answered with a three-pointer of his own to cut the team’s deficit back to four points.
A three-point play from Ahmad followed as well as one from Culver as Kansas State big man Makol Mawien fouled out. Culver’s three-point play capped off a 6-0 run for the Mountaineers, giving West Virginia a 58-50 lead with 8:51 remaining.
More back-and-forth action saw Kansas State come within three points of the Mountaineers two different times. The Wildcats would continue to battle and a jump shot from Brown made it just a two-point game in favor of West Virginia.
A Culver layup made it a four-point game again but a jumper from Kamau Stokes made it a two-point game again. Kansas State then took its first lead of the night with a four-point play from Xavier Sneed which made it 68-66 in favor of the Wildcats.
West made a layup to tie the game at 68 and later made one of two free throws to put the Mountaineers up by a point with 1:33 left.
Kansas State then regained the lead with a layup from Brown with 29 seconds left. The Wildcats then went up by two points with a free throw from Sneed at 71-69 after West Virginia was shut down on its next offensive possession and that would be the final score.
The Mountaineers will host Oklahoma State this Saturday inside the WVU Coliseum for a noon ET tip-off.
Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide
