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Mountaineers Keep Pace With OU Atop Big 12
January 26, 2016 10:09 PM | Men's Basketball
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jonathan Holton scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead ninth-ranked West Virginia to a 70-55 victory over Kansas State Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.
Neither team shot particularly well tonight, the winning Mountaineers hitting 42.6 percent of their field goal attempts while K-State connecting on just 35.1 percent from the floor, including one-of-18 from three.
The poor shooting also carried over to the free throw line where West Virginia missed 13 and Kansas State failed to convert on nine of its 23 attempts.
“We didn’t shoot it very well, they didn’t shoot it very well, we didn’t make free throws, they didn’t make free throws and we turned it over and they turned it over,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
“I’m just happy we got the win. We win and we move on and that gives us six league wins and we’ll keep pushing forward,” added Huggins.
West Virginia (17-3, 6-2) was sleep walking through the first half until being whistled for back-to-back technical fouls, one going against guard Tarik Phillip after he made a driving layup and another on West Virginia’s bench for protesting the call.
Kansas State was only able to make just one of four to take an 8-7 lead, but the two technicals finally stirred up a lethargic WVU student section.
Over the next seven minutes West Virginia built its lead to nine, 19-10, getting baskets from Jaysean Paige, Devin Williams, Holton, a three from Paige and another close one from Holton.
K-State eventually whittled West Virginia’s lead down to three, 21-18, on a pair of Justin Edwards free throws, but the Mountaineers used a 13-7 run over the remaining 4:48 to take a 34-25 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
WVU pushed the lead to double digits in the second half, getting to as high as 17, 57-40, with 5:51 to go.
Jaysean Paige came off the bench to score 12, while Nathan Adrian, getting his first start of the year in place of freshman Esa Ahmad, scored 10 points on four of five shooting. Ahmad sat out today’s game with a sprained right knee.
“I thought for a good portion of the game Nate Adrian was the best player on the floor, and not because he made shots either,” said Huggins. “I thought he played well. He handled the ball, he made good decisions with the ball, I thought he was really good defensively and he kept balls alive. That may be Nate’s best game ever in terms of an all-around game.”
In getting his sixth double-double of the season, Holton made six of eight from the floor and also pulled down seven defensive rebounds.
“He’s staying on the floor and he’s getting his bounce back,” said Huggins of Holton. “I think we all went through a little deal there because it’s a long year and everybody was missing a little bounce.”
Jonathan Holton scores two of his game-high 14 points tonight against Kansas State (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
The Mountaineers also got a nice contribution off the bench tonight from Teyvon Myers, who scored seven points, grabbed three rebounds and handed out an assist in eight minutes of action.
“Teyvon is getting better and better,” said Huggins. “You’ve got to give the kid credit. He comes in here as the leading scorer in all of junior college a year ago and he put himself in a really bad spot, he knows he did it and he knows he’s had to work his way out and to his credit, he’s trying.”
Kansas State (12-8, 2-6) got 11 points from Edwards.
An announced crowd of 9,936 watched tonight’s game.
Earlier this month in Manhattan, West Virginia defeated K-State 87-83 in double overtime to sweep the season series for the second straight year.
West Virginia’s win tonight keeps the Mountaineers on pace with Oklahoma atop the Big 12 standings; the Sooners got their sixth conference victory of the season earlier tonight against Texas Tech.
WVU steps outside of conference play to face Florida on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville for the Big 12/SEC Challenge in the final regular season non-conference game of the year.
That game will tip off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
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