Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Freshman Oscar Tshiebwe's 16 points led five double-figure scorers in West Virginia's 76-61 victory over Iowa State Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Tshiebwe also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for his team-best eighth double-double of the season.
 
Tonight's win was an important one for the 13^th-ranked Mountaineers because it puts them in sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings at 6-3, one game ahead of 5-4 Texas Tech. Baylor (9-0) and Kansas (8-1) remain one and two in the conference.
 
West Virginia (18-4) led throughout with the exception of one tie at 1:04 and built a 24-point advantage with 4:16 to go before going on cruise control.
 
The Cyclones continued playing and outscored the Mountaineers 12-3 over the final four minutes of the game.
 
Chase Harler came off the bench to score a season-high 14 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3, Derek Culver and Emmitt Matthews Jr. contributed 12 each and Jermaine Haley added 11.
 
WVU shot a sizzling 59 percent in the first half before leveling off late in the second half to finish the game 29-of-58 for an even 50 percent.
 
"We got a lot of close shots," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said of his team's effective first-half shooting.
 
West Virginia had a substantial advantage on the glass (46 to 28), but a couple of problem areas popped up again tonight, bothering Huggins afterward. West Virginia turned the ball over 19 times and shot just 12-of-24 from the free throw line.
 
"We didn't play," he said. "We had 19 turnovers again so we're heading in the wrong direction there. We were 12-for-24 from the foul line and that's the wrong direction. Those are two telltale signs of guys who were just not ready to play."

West Virginia played without backup guard Sean McNeil, who did not dress tonight because of illness.
 
Haley did a good job containing Iowa State's Tyrese Haliburton for a good portion of the game before the guard got a couple of late baskets to finish with 12. A handful of NBA scouts were among the 11,103 in attendance tonight to watch Haliburton play.
 
Guard Rasir Bolton led Iowa State with a game-high 18.
 
The Cyclones remain winless on the road this season and have now lost 10 straight away from Hilton Coliseum dating back to last year. The loss tonight drops Iowa State's record to 9-13, 2-7.
 
Huggins got win No. 878 to move him to within one of Dean Smith for sixth on the NCAA all-time wins list with 879. But that was secondary to him.
 
"This whole deal has changed," he said. "It's not just a win or a loss but how you do it. That's what the NET is, which is a compilation of different statistical things that define whether you are going to be in the NCAA Tournament and where you are going to be seeded. And we didn't do ourselves any favors today."
 
The coach said during his postgame radio show that his team has lost some of the enthusiasm and bounce that has gotten it to the cusp of a top-10 ranking.
 
"We're not the same guys. We're not jumping around, hugging each other and being excited," he said. "We're walking around with our heads down and we're not doing ourselves any favors.
 
"It's a long year and we're 22 games in, but this is when the good teams crank it up," Huggins added. "That's what I just challenged them with (in the locker room)."
 
West Virginia is back on the road Saturday to face Oklahoma in Norman in a 2 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The Sooners are two games behind West Virginia in the league standings at 4-5 and 14-8 overall. OU lost by eight at Texas Tech on Tuesday night.