KANSAS CITY - The box score doesn't always tell the full story.
 
During West Virginia's 78-65 victory over Baylor last night, Esa Ahmad was terrific with a season-high 21 points.
 
Daxter Miles Jr. was outstanding with 19 points, including 5-of-6 shooting from 3, and Jevon Carter was tremendous with 18 points and 11 assists.
 
But on down the box score all the way at the bottom was No. 31, Logan Routt.
 
His stat line read 1-for-1 shooting, two defensive rebounds, two personal fouls, two points, one assist and 17 minutes - certainly not numbers that are going to get you on the Big 12 all-tournament team.
 
But what Routt was able to do without the basketball in his hands made possible what all those guys above him on the box score managed to do in the Mountaineers' quarterfinal round victory Thursday night.
 
Before Routt got into the game, West Virginia was struggling to score against Baylor's zone defense. With eight minutes left in the first half the Mountaineers had just 10 points and couldn't get a decent look at the basket inside of 25 feet.
 
Then, suddenly, the offense began to click. Carter banged a deep 3, Miles Jr. got the ball in an area where he could score and was fouled, leading to two free throws. More free throws came from Wesley Harris, and a couple of Ahmad baskets in the paint gave the Mountaineers their first lead since the opening tip.
 
Routt didn't score a single point during that flurry, but he made it all possible by screening Baylor's middle man in the zone to allow Ahmad, Harris, Lamont West and Daxter Miles Jr. to rub off him into the soft spots for open looks.
 
When the middle man finally got screened, West Virginia finally began scoring baskets.
 
"Logan Routt … he played a game," Miles Jr. said. "He was the X factor in my eyes because we couldn't score without him pinning it. He was pinning their big fella, and we were just trying to create offense off him."
 
"My job was to screen the middle man in the zone to open up the whole paint," Routt explained. "That's what we were trying to do with Esa, Wes, Lamont or whoever it was flashing off my tail."
 
Do you remember 10 years ago in 2008 when West Virginia came back to defeat Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament?
 
Forward Cam Thoroughman had a similar type game without scoring a bunch of points or grabbing a slew of rebounds, but things just seemed to work better when he was out on the floor that day.
 
It was the same deal against Baylor Thursday night with Logan Routt out there.
 
When Sagaba Konate picked up his third foul before a minute had ticked off the clock in the second half, Routt was right back in the game and that's when the lead went from two to 13 in less than two minutes.
 
"I feel like we weren't sealing the middle man," Routt explained. "I tried to do that when I got in there and that's when we started to get some momentum. I hit the middle man and that's when things opened up in the paint."
 
Routt also did his job defensively by not letting Baylor's 7-foot center Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. control the backboard. Lual-Acuil grabbed nine rebounds, but not a single one of them came on the offensive glass where Baylor does most of its damage.
 
The Bears had their way with West Virginia on the backboards in the two prior games, but last night the Mountaineers outrebounded Baylor 37-31.
 
Routt was only responsible for two of those, but keeping Lual-Acuil away from the weak side enabled Ahmad to snare eight and Miles Jr. to secure six.
 
"I just tried to make sure my man didn't get the ball," Routt said. "Someone else can come in and get it off the ground because I'm going to try and keep my man from getting it every time."
 
Defensively, the Cameron resident limited Lual-Acuil to just 4 points on 2-of-5 shooting.
 
"He's a really skilled player and he's 7-foot so I just tried to make sure he didn't catch the ball and keep him from scoring. That's what I tried to focus on," Routt said. "Obviously, I have a little bit more size so I tried to seal him inside and box him out when I could."
 
Routt even got a dunk late in the first half off a pretty feed from Miles Jr. along the baseline. That was a little thank you for Logan's good work getting all of them open.
 
Routt had one other opportunity to score, but that one didn't turn out as well when his free throw caromed off the backboard.
 
"My knees didn't bend at all," he laughed. "I didn't even want to look at the bench after I did that. I guess I'm going to shoot 200 instead of 100 (today)."
 
Tonight, it's No. 2-seeded Texas Tech in the second semifinal game following the Kansas-Kansas State game at 7 p.m. EDT.
 
The Red Raiders outlasted No. 7-seeded Texas, 73-69, in the first quarterfinal game of last night's session. Point guard Keenan Evans, who didn't play in West Virginia's 84-74 victory over Texas Tech in Morgantown, scored a team-high 25 points.
 
ESPN2 will televise tonight's game while the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's radio coverage will begin at 8:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app TuneIn.