National Basketball Association
West Virginia 76, Kansas St. 72
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Where: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia
Officials:
# John Higgins, # Steve Olsen, # Antinio Petty
Attendance:
8762
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 20 West Virginia 76, Kansas State 72: Reserve forward Brandon Watkins scored a career-high 14 points and grabbed a season-high nine rebounds as the Mountaineers completed a regular-season sweep of the visiting Wildcats.
Juwan Staten added 11 points and six assists for West Virginia (19-5, 7-4 Big 12), which won for the first time in three games. Mountaineer reserves Jevon Carter and Jaysean Paige had 10 points apiece in a game which featured 52 combined fouls, 32 turnovers and 26 missed free throws.
Nino Williams had 22 points for Kansas State (12-13, 5-7), which played its third straight game without leading scorer Marcus Foster (suspension) and suffered its fifth consecutive setback overall. Nigel Johnson and Justin Edwards contributed 14 points apiece for the Wildcats, who shot 56.8 percent from the field but committed 17 turnovers.
West Virginia led 46-35 at the break but Kansas State refused to go quietly, scoring the first five points of the second half and reeling off a stunning 12-0 run to pull ahead 69-67 on a Williams’ three-point play with 2:25 to go. The Wildcats, however, proceeded to lose two turnovers and miss a pair of free throws over the ensuing two minutes as the Mountaineers scored the next five points and hit four of six final free throws to close out the win.
Kansas State’s last lead of the first half came at 8-7 but it remained close, cutting West Virginia's lead to 18-17 and 35-31. The Mountaineers, though, closed the first half with an 11-4 run to take the 11-point lead into intermission.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Kansas State finished with a combined 42 turnovers in the two losses to West Virginia this season. … The Mountaineers won for only the third time in eight games when allowing 70 or more points. … Six of West Virginia’s final seven regular-season games will be against currently-ranked Big 12 foes.
Top Game Performances
| Kansas St. |
|
West Virginia |
|
Nino Williams 22 |
Scoring |
Brandon Watkins 14 |
|
Nigel Johnson 5 |
Assists |
Juwan Staten 6 |
|
Thomas Gipson 6 |
Rebounds |
Brandon Watkins 9 |
|
Nino Williams 8 |
Free Throws Made |
Gary Browne 5 |
|
Thomas Gipson 3 |
Steals |
Tarik Phillip 5 |
|
Brandon Bolden 1 |
Blocks |
Jaysean Paige 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Kansas St.
|
72 |
56.8 |
2-6 |
20-33 |
13 |
30 |
1 |
9 |
17 |
| West Virginia
|
76 |
46.3 |
6-16 |
20-33 |
17 |
32 |
2 |
11 |
15 |
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