Box Score Kansas State overcame a 21-point second half deficit to stun West Virginia 71-69 tonight at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas.
 
Barry Brown's game-high 29 points, 20 of those coming in the second half, were enough to give the Wildcats their first Big 12 victory of the season.
 
For a good portion of the game, it looked like West Virginia was going to be the team getting its first conference victory of the year.
 
West Virginia (8-7, 0-3) jumped out to an early 20-3 lead and had a 36-21 advantage at halftime. Then, a quick start to the second half got the Mountaineers' lead to 21, 42-21, with 18:49 remaining on Derek Culver's short jumper.
 
Then WVU went cold and Kansas State got hot. 
 
The Wildcats scored the next 15 points over a six-minute span before Culver ended West Virginia's drought with a tip-in basket. WVU eventually got its margin back to 10 with 8:51 remaining on Culver's traditional three-point play. In the process of Culver scoring, K-State's Makol Mawien fouled out of the game.
 
But that's when Brown and Xavier Sneed took over the game. Those two helped Kansas State make eight-straight field goals, the last one a Sneed 3 from the corner with 2:30 left to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game at 67-66. He was also fouled by Lamont West and Sneed's free throw made it 68-66.
 
"All we talked about was they were going to come out and drive it at you, that's the only chance they have," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They drove it at us and we cowered up."
 
West tied the game at 68 when he followed up his miss along the baseline. Then after a Sneed missed 3 with 1:33 remaining, West was fouled by Mike McGuirl while both were going for the rebound. West could only get one of two to go down - one of nine missed free throws for the Mountaineers - and Brown was able to score a layup at the other end to give the Wildcats a 70-69 lead with 29 seconds remaining.
 
Here Huggins used his final timeout. On West Virginia's prior possession following another Huggins timeout, Esa Ahmad fumbled away the basketball while trying to score in the lane.
 
This time, Jermaine Haley dribbled down the clock and got the ball to Culver in the lane in front of the foul line. His short jumper with five seconds remaining was strong and Sneed grabbed the rebound. West fouled Sneed, who made the first one and missed the second, but West Virginia was unable to get off a shot attempt to win it.
 
"We tried to get the same iso we got for Beetle (Bolden) at the end of the Texas game … I tried to get that for Jermaine and they switched it," Huggins explained. "Derek just doesn't know enough yet. Had he rolled to the front of the rim we could have probably got him the ball (close to the basket). He ended up with the ball but not in a real good position, but you can't blame him."
 
Kansas State (11-4, 1-2) led for only 56 seconds, but it got the lead at the most important time in the game.
 
The loss was similar to West Virginia's recent defeats against Texas Tech and Texas. WVU was only 14-of-23 from the free throw line and it also turned the ball over 17 times, which led to 25 Wildcat points.
 
West came off the bench to lead West Virginia with 21 points, 15 of those coming from 3-point distance. Culver had another strong performance with 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.  
 
"He's carrying a whole bunch of guys we're supposed to be depending on," Huggins said. "He's absolutely carrying them on his back."
 
Haley added a season-high 13, including a pair of 3s.
 
The Mountaineers had a big advantage on the glass by out-rebounding the smaller Wildcats 37-23, but K-State more than made up for it with its backcourt play. In addition to Brown's 29, McGuirl scored 18, Kamau Stokes had 12 and Sneed added 10.
 
During his postgame radio show, Huggins indicated that he planned on lifting true freshman guard Trey Doomes' redshirt in an effort to bolster his backcourt.
 
"He's the only straight-line driver we have," Huggins said. "He straight-line drives these guys in practice every day. He will play hard and why not? We're floundering around at 8-7."
 
Huggins also indicated that he was going to start playing some of the younger players such as freshman forward Emmitt Matthews more minutes.
 
West Virginia, now 0-3 in league play for the first time since joining the Big 12 in 2013, will try to get its first league victory on Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum against Oklahoma State, which knocked off Texas last night.
 
Huggins issued an appeal for Mountaineer Nation to come out and support his team on Saturday.
 
"We need you. We need to get a win," he said. "If you can come out and support this group it would mean a whole lot."
 
The game will tip off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.