No. 3 Kansas Too Much for WVU Saturday Night in Morgantown

No. 3 Kansas Too Much for WVU Saturday Night in Morgantown | https://wvusports.com/

By Press release submission

Jan 12, 2023

No. 3 Kansas Too Much for WVU Saturday Night in Morgantown

Third-ranked Kansas nearly led West Virginia from wire to wire to deposit the Mountaineers 76-62 Saturday night here at a sold-out WVU Coliseum.

The Jayhawks used an 11-of-24 shooting performance from beyond the 3-point arc in improving to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in Big 12 play.

All five Kansas starters reached double figures. Jalen Wilson, KU's leading scorer averaging 20.6 points per game, finished with 14 on 4-of-12 shooting. Guard KJ Adams Jr. added 14, Kevin McCullar scored 12 and DaJuan Harris finished with 11 for KU.

"Kansas is good. They're (No. 3) in the country for a reason, but we shouldn't get beat like that," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.

The Jayhawks took the crowd of 14,135 out of the game early by making nine of their first 11 field goal attempts to build an early double-digit lead.

West Virginia (10-5, 0-3) fought back to reduce KU's lead to six, 30-24, on an Emmitt Matthews Jr. 3 and had an opportunity to get even closer late in the half. After a Tre Mitchell free throw made it 40-34, Jayhawks, Joe Toussaint missed his attempt at the charity stripe and WVU's inability to grab a rebound at the other end led to Adams getting two free throws when he was fouled by James Okonkwo.

He hit both to give the Jayhawks a 42-35 lead at the break.

WVU, which shot just 35.1% from the floor for the game, missed eight of its first nine shots to begin the second half and Kansas eventually took complete control of the game at the midway point.

The Jayhawk margin swelled to 16 on Zach Clemence's layup and then to 20 on Bobby Pettiford's layup with 7:09 left.

Kansas' biggest lead of the game was 22, 71-49, on a pair of McCullar free throws.

"We've been guarding screen and rolls since practice started and we told our bigs to make sure they get under the screener so he can't roll uncontested to the basket. We're in game (15) and we still can't get underneath a guy," Huggins said. "That's my fault."

West Virginia, playing without starting point guard Kedrian Johnson who was sidelined in concussion protocol, got 15 points from Tre Mitchell, 12 from Erik Stevenson and 11 from Emmitt Matthews Jr.

West Virginia's three starters Mitchell, Toussaint and Stevenson combined to shoot 11 of 41 from the floor. The Mountaineers were 4 of 20 from 3-point range and were beaten on the glass 43 to 35.

Forward Jimmy Bell Jr. made a couple of early baskets but took a shot to the chest early in the second half and only played 15 minutes. Eleven different players got into the game as Huggins searched for someone to give his team a spark.

"I'm frustrated that we're depending upon people that we should have to depend on," Huggins said.

In its three Big 12 games so far this season, West Virginia has made 65 of its 172 field goal attempts for 37.8%.

"We've run everything imaginable, which is a mistake because if we can't run one offense efficiently, we're sure not going to be able to run three efficiently," Huggins said.

Kansas has now won four straight and eight of its last nine meetings against West Virginia. The Mountaineers' last victory came on Feb. 6, 2021, when they deposited the 23rd-rated Jayhawks 91-79.

"We've got Baylor coming in here next and we can beat Baylor and go on a run to get back into contention, but we've got to straighten a few guys out to be able to do that," Huggins said.

WVU will take another crack at getting into the win column in conference play next Wednesday night when it faces Baylor in a 7 p.m. game at the Coliseum. The 19th-ranked Bears are also 0-3 after falling 97-95 to Kansas State in overtime in Waco.

"We had Kansas State beat and then we do ignorant things, and they get on a roll. Then we made a heck of a comeback against Oklahoma State and didn't finish it," Huggins said. "We're not playing bad teams."

Tickets are still available for Wednesday night's Baylor game through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.