Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Miles McBride scored 18 points and 14^th-ranked West Virginia benefitted from 28 Kansas State turnovers to defeat the Wildcats 69-47 at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas, in Saturday afternoon Big 12 basketball action.
 
The Mountaineers, idle for 14 days since losing 72-70 to Texas at the Coliseum on Jan. 9, shot 44% from the floor and were out-rebounded by 13, 36-24, but were never really threatened by a youthful and inexperienced K-State team.
 
"We spent a lot of time defensively this week getting more guys to the ball," Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins said. "We did a better job of taking away straight-line drives and a better job of forcing them where we wanted them to go, and forcing them into a position where we could guard them."
 
West Virginia (10-4, 3-3) jumped out to an early 21-4 lead and basically kept the margin at double figures for most of the game, with the exception of a brief moment early in the second half with the Wildcats reduced the Mountaineers' lead to eight, 36-28. 
 
But WVU answered with a quick flurry to push the lead back to 16. Taz Sherman was the catalyst with a pair of transition 3s, his second one coming with 13:58 remaining.
 
McBride was the guy for West Virginia at the outset, scoring 12 of his game-high 18 points in the first half as part of a modified starting lineup that included Sherman, Jordan McCabe, freshman Jalen Bridges and Derek Culver.
 
Culver and regular forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. practiced for the first time since the interruption on Friday and the layoff showed. Culver scored 8 points and grabbed only four rebounds in 21 minutes of action before fouling out with 3:54 to go.
 
Matthews came off the bench to contribute 4 points and a pair of rebounds in only nine minutes of court time.
 
"Everybody kept asking me, 'Will they be ready?' I think some of our guys were, but it wasn't fair to Emmitt and Derek because they really didn't practice at all," Huggins said. "They practiced just a little bit yesterday and they certainly showed the rust."
 
Bridges stepped up with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while Sherman contributed 10 – all in the second half.
 
Senior guard Mike McGuirl scored 15 and freshman Selton Miguel added 10 for struggling Kansas State, which lost its sixth straight league game and its fourth by a double-digit margin.
 
The Wildcats (5-11, 1-7) have recently lost by 16 at home to Oklahoma State, by 15 at Kansas and by 26 at Oklahoma before today's 22-point loss to West Virginia.
 
West Virginia shot just 44% from the floor and had the Mountaineers been able to knock down more of their open shot attempts, today's winning margin could have very easily been 30 or more.
 
McCabe was 1-of-5 from the floor, McNeil 0-for-6, Sherman 2-for-6 and Culver 2-for-8.
 
"We've got to make open shots," Huggins said. "If we make open shots we're a pretty good team and when we don't make open shots we're going to struggle to try and have our defense carry us."
 
At the same time, McBride and Bridges were a combined 12-of-18 for 67%.
 
"In this league it's a win and we're back to even with a heck of a chance to gain some ground," Huggins said.

Today's 22-point victory was West Virginia's biggest on the road in conference play since joining the Big 12 during the 2012-13 season. The Mountaineers won by 17 at Oklahoma State in 2017.

It's the biggest road win in conference play for the Mountaineers since they won at Seton Hall by 26 on Jan. 3, 2009 when they were still members of the Big East Conference.
 
West Virginia has a quick turnaround with a Monday night game against 12^th-ranked Texas Tech at the WVU Coliseum. The Red Raiders have been off since last Saturday when they lost 68-60 to Baylor. 
 
Texas Tech is 11-4, 4-3.
 
Monday's game will be the last one at the Coliseum without fans. West Virginia University announced earlier today that state, local and University officials are permitting 1,000 fans to attend the Jan. 30 Big 12-SEC Challenge game against Florida.
 
It's the first time this season a limited number of fans will be permitted to attend home basketball games at the WVU Coliseum because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Florida held on to defeat Georgia earlier today to improve to 8-4.