Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Christian Braun's 22 points led No. 3-ranked Kansas to a 79-65 victory over No. 7 West Virginia Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.
The Jayhawks bombed away from three tonight by hitting 16-of-37 from behind the arc in administering West Virginia its worst loss of the season.
"We put a 3-2 zone in to try and keep them from penetrating and I thought that was pretty effective in the first half and then we had some breakdowns," West Virginia coach
Bob Huggins said.
Braun was 6-of-12 from three, Jalen Wilson made four and Ochai Agbaji and Marcus Garrett hit three each for the Jayhawks, now 8-1 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. Braun, Wilson and Agbaji have shot the ball well from behind the arc this year, but Garrett hasn't, which is indicative of the kind of night it was going to be for West Virginia, now 7-2, 1-1.
"They had a great night and we didn't have a great night," Huggins added.
Sean McNeil's torrid outside shooting in the first half kept the Mountaineers in it, and his bank-shot three right before the end of the first half gave them a 36-35 lead.
McNeil hit all six of his first-half threes and was seven of seven overall for 20 points at intermission. After the break, Kansas permitted him to make only two baskets to finish with a game-high 24.
The game turned in Kansas' favor when guard
Miles McBride picked up three quick fouls in the second half and was forced to go to the bench with 15:50 remaining and West Virginia trailing 46-44.
When he finally got back into the game, the Kansas lead was 10 and quickly swelled to 15.
"Deuce getting into foul trouble and taking him out of the game really hurt us," Huggins said. "Deuce has been the guy making shots for us when we needed a shot to kind of stop their runs."
The Jayhawks' biggest lead was 22 with 4:16 left on a Garrett three.
"(Garrett) is not an (outside) shooter, he's a driver and he made shots," Huggins said. "They just made shots and we didn't. We had pretty good looks and didn't make them."
Overall, Kansas shot three percentage points better than West Virginia's 41% from the floor, but the Jayhawks doubled up the Mountaineers from behind the three-point arc, several of those coming after initial misses.
"The ones they missed bounced out to the three-point line and they chased them down and we kind of stood there and watched them do it," Huggins said. "They got a ton of rebounds that bounced out long."
Kansas out-rebounded West Virginia 40-37 and outscored the Mountaineers 25-to-14 in second chance points. The Jayhawks had 19 assists on their 28 field goals while West Virginia had only 10 assists on its 26 field goals.
Wilson contributed 17 points, Garrett scored 15, Agbaji 11 and center David McCormack added 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
McBride was the only other West Virginia player to reach double figures with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting.
West Virginia's inside tandem of
Derek Culver and
Oscar Tshiebwe combined to shoot just five-of-14 for 11 points. Culver scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.
"We tried to throw it close and we didn't play through their physicality in the post," Huggins said. "We threw it close to Oscar and he didn't finish and Derek didn't finish the way he has been finishing."
The Mountaineers are now winless in nine tries at Allen Fieldhouse.
A limited capacity of 2,500 attended tonight's game.
"We made them do what we thought we had to make them do and that was try and make jump shots and not drive it at the basket," Huggins said. "They've gotten us before because we couldn't stop them from driving it at the basket, and when we went back to man late in the game, they just drove it at the rim."
With the Buffalo game scheduled for Dec. 29 now canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the Bulls' program, the Mountaineers next scheduled game is Jan. 2 at Oklahoma unless they can find a replacement game before then.
The Sooners dropped a heartbreaking 69-67 loss to Texas Tech earlier tonight in Norman to fall to 1-1 in league play. OU is 5-2 overall.
