MORGANTOWN -
West Virginia is still searching for its first home win in
the Big 12.
Despite taking No. 18 Kansas State down to the wire, the
Wildcats were able to squeeze out a 65-64 win at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers were unable to convert after the teams
called back-to-back timeouts with nine seconds remaining, failing to get a shot
off as head coach Bruce Weber's team left Morgantown with its 13th
victory of the season.
"I thought we competed for the most part," Bob Huggins said
after the game. "The problem is we won't do it for a consistent period of time.
Did all nine guys that played compete? Absolutely not."
A strong first half from the Mountaineers (8-7, 1-2) kept
the home team in striking distance as they trailed 36-33 heading into the
break.
The question, of course, was whether or not the momentum
from the first half would carry on to the second.
Gary Browne got the Mountaineers started in the second half with
a jumper and back-to-back layups from Terry Henderson kept it going as WVU went
on a 8-0 run out of the locker room.
When the Wildcats started finding the basket again, the
Mountaineers began to look like even the simplest of shots were a major task. Dominique
Rutledge and Aaric Murray both had the ball inside and missed on point blank
layups and Kansas State didn't let the rebounds fall back into the hands of an
offensive player.
"We've just got to make layups. If we have those layups,
it's an easy two points," Jabarie Hinds said. "We just fell short on some of
them, but we have to pick it up on defense with the points that we missed."
It took until the Wildcats had just stretched their run to
12 unanswered points for the Mountaineers to go on a streak of their own,
scoring the next nine while Kansas State's only production came when Murray was
called for a goaltending.
Hinds got the scoring going early with six of WVU's first
nine points. The sophomore, who struggled from the field through much of the
Texas game, finished with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
But with 3:52 left, Hinds stepped to the line for two free
throws and missed them both. It was a common theme for much of the day as
Kansas State had 22 team fouls to WVU's 12, but the Mountaineers made just 12
of their 22 freebies.
"Going into the Texas game, I believe we made more free
throws than anyone in the power six conferences and then we go 12-for-22,"
Huggins said. "I think we had three times where we had transition deals and
they steal the ball when we're dribbling it."
West Virginia came out of a late timeout and Murray missed a
baby hook, but after the Mountaineers pulled down the rebound, they got it back
in to the junior and he rattled one home from close range.
An off-balance shot from Eron Harris put WVU up 64-63 with
21 seconds left, but Kansas State's Shane Southwell connected on two free
throws to give the Wildcats the lead back.
With WVU down one, Bob Huggins and Bruce Weber called consecutive
timeouts with nine seconds remaining before Hinds struggled to handle the
inbounds pass. Gary Browne gathered the ball well behind midcourt but was
unable to get off a shot before time ran out, the Mountaineers falling just shy
of the first home win in conference play.
"Run the play we ran for [Da'Sean Butler] when he made five game-winning shots,"
Huggins said of the play drawn up out of the timeout. "I don't know [what
happened]. I'll have to look at the tape. I just know we didn't get it."
It has been three halves without Juwan Staten for Huggins'
team after the sophomore guard – and team captain – sat out the final 20
minutes of the win over Texas and was left on the bench for the entirety of
Saturday's game.
"He's going to get on the same page as me or he's not going
to play anymore," Huggins said.
The Mountaineers will get their next Big 12 action on
Wednesday as WVU heads to Ames to take on Iowa State.
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