by By John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kansas State limited West Virginia to just five points during a seven-minute stretch at the start of the second half in recording an 81-67 victory over the Mountaineers Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
Fueled by six 3-point field goals, 12 free throws and RaeQuan Battle’s 18 points, West Virginia overcame some torrid K-State first-half shooting to lead the Wildcats 42-40 at the break.
But WVU tallied just one field goal over an eight-minute stretch in the second half to drop its second Big 12 decision of the season. Turnovers by Kerr Kriisa and Battle on consecutive possessions resulted in five quick Kansas State points and a lead the Wildcats would never relinquish.
Battle, who was 4-of-6 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free throw line in the first half, could only get one of his seven second-half field goal attempts to go down to finish with 21 points.
“For the most part, K-State’s defensive buy-in in the second half was impressive,” West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said. “They turned the page and they really got after us in the second half and took us out of everything we were trying to do.”
Kansas State (12-3, 2-0) outscored West Virginia 41-25 after intermission primarily by getting whatever it wanted close to the basket and bottling the Mountaineers up on the other end of the floor. In the second half, West Virginia (5-10, 0-2) shot 8-of-26 from the floor, was out-rebounded 23 to 11 and allowed the Wildcats to score on 19 of their 33 possessions.
K-State outscored WVU 44 to 22 in the paint, out-rebounded the Mountaineers 35 to 22 and had a 17 to 5 advantage in points off turnovers.
“It was 13-13 in turnovers, but they capitalized on theirs, along with points in the paint,” Eilert said. “Our rotations in those traps, especially early, we had to get out of that and start hard-hedging. We’re just a very good rotating team yet and we are trying to shore that up and it’s not coming as quickly as I’d like it to, by any means.”
For the game, Kansas State made 28 of 52 from the floor for 53.8% and converted 19 of 23 from the free throw line for 82.6%. The Wildcats were 11 of 12 from the foul line after intermission.
Guard Cam Carter led all scorers with 23 points, getting 10 of those from the free throw line. David N’Guessan contributed 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while Arthur Kaluma also chipped in with 17 on 6-of-9 shooting for the Wildcats, winning for just the third time at the Coliseum in 12 appearances.
Noah Farrakhan and Kriisa scored 11 each for West Virginia, which shot 39.2% from the floor for the game.
“The ball is just sticking too long, and people rotate on you and cover everything up,” Eilert explained of his team’s offensive difficulties. “Even the way they were handling ball screens, we should have had short roll after roll, got out of there and had an advantage.”
To give his team a spark, Eilert tweaked his starting lineup tonight with Josiah Harris and Patrick Suemnick getting the nod over Quinn Slazinski and Akok Akok. Suemnick and Akok ended up splitting the minutes equally at 21 each, while Slazinski had 21 minutes to Harris’ 17.
“Some of these games that have been a struggle (shooting the ball), it’s the same thing in the win column. We’ve got to see one go down and not lose faith in each other and continue to work for the guys in the locker room,” Eilert said. “Their heads are in the right place. They are just as disappointed as everyone in this building. They want to figure out how to get a win.”
