Juwan is On; WVU Downs No. 8 Kansas
February 17, 2015 12:10 AM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Juwan Staten’s driving layup with four seconds left gave West Virginia a 62-61 victory over eighth-ranked Kansas Monday night here at the WVU Coliseum.
No. 23 West Virginia (20-6, 8-5) got into position to win the game with 8.3 seconds left when Frank Mason III couldn’t get his layup to go down and the Jayhawks knocked the ball out of bounds underneath the Kansas basket.
Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins used a full timeout to design a play that resulted in Staten getting a wide open drive into the lane, where he made a pretty spin move to get past Mason III to put in an uncontested layup.
Huggins described Staten’s game-deciding final basket.
“I wanted Chase (Connor) in because they had to guard him, but I didn’t have anybody to screen up there and I had to get Wanny the ball,” he explained. “Coming down (Jevon Carter) tried to set a screen for him enough, I think, that got him by (Mason III), and I held Jon Holton in the corner because if that guy helps up then we’re just going to the basket.
“That was really good execution for something kind of on the fly and really throwing guys in there that haven’t been in that position before,” Huggins added.
After Staten’s basket, Kansas immediately got the ball inbounds down the floor to Perry Ellis who missed a layup that would have won the game for the Jayhawks. A hustling Staten was able to sprint back and bother Ellis just enough to cause him to miss the game-winning shot.
“(Staten was) the guy who ran between Ellis and the rim and kind of changed his steps and kind of got him off-balance,” said Huggins. “He makes the field goal at one end and gets back and makes the play at the other end. That’s huge.”
“I just tried to get back, make a play and then celebrate,” added Staten.
Kansas (21-5, 10-3), which scored the first 10 points of the second half on 5-of-5 shooting, went cold at the 10-minute mark and that allowed the Mountaineers to tie the game at 49 on a Holton stick-back.
“We didn’t panic,” said Huggins. “We panicked at Iowa State. We tried to make five-point plays out of two-point plays and we ran a couple things for JC and he made shots.”
The lead changed four times after Holton’s score until Kansas got consecutive baskets from Ellis, Mason III and Ellis again to make it 57-52 with 3:45 remaining.
Two Gary Browne free throws with 3:28 made it a three-point game, 57-54, and then back-to-back Carter 3s, the second coming in transition with 2:31 to go, gave the Mountaineers a 60-59 lead.
“I think JC made some huge, huge shots for us,” said Huggins. “When you are running sets at the end of the game to try and (get the ball) to a freshman that’s a pretty special freshman.”
Following Carter’s 3 and a 30-second Kansas timeout, Mason III got loose for a layup with 2:13 left to set up the game’s final two minutes.
In the first half, West Virginia built an early 11-point lead as Kansas struggled to adjust to the Mountaineers’ full-court pressure defense. Nine of KU’s 14 turnovers came in the first half, but eventually the Jayhawks were able to get their act together and get some better looks once they got beyond the half-court traps.
Staten finished with a game-high 20 – 11 of those coming in the second half – on 9-of-18 shooting while Carter also reached double figures with 13, 9 of those coming from behind the arc.
Ellis led Kansas with 19 points, Mason III contributed 18 and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 14.
A vocal crowd of 7,033 watched tonight’s game. After Ellis’s miss, WVU’s students rushed the floor to celebrate the Mountaineers’ first home win over a top-10-ranked team since beating No. 8 Kansas here last year.
“For 7,000 people to come out and support us that way was terrific,” said Huggins. “I was afraid we were going to have about (3,000) after looking at the weather report.”
Tonight’s win was huge for the Mountaineers, which hadn’t had a victory over a top-50 RPI team in more than a month since beating Oklahoma at the Coliseum back on January 13. The win over RPI No. 1 Kansas now puts WVU in a much better place for the NCAA tournament with the Mountaineers likely playing for tournament seeding from this point forward.
“We were 23 in the RPI today and Kansas was one, so providing everybody else we’ve played does what they’re supposed to do this week our RPI ought to be in the teens and that’s what you’ve got to have,” said Huggins.
All five of West Virginia’s remaining games are against RPI top-35 teams, including Saturday’s game at Oklahoma State, which knocked off Kansas nine days ago.
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