Box Score Torrid second-half shooting led No. 9 Kansas to a runaway 85-59 victory over West Virginia Saturday afternoon before another capacity crowd of 16,300 at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
Leading just 33-31 at halftime, the Jayhawks (14-2, 3-1) scored the first nine points of the second half to force WVU to call a 30-second timeout. Gabe Osabuohien briefly stopped the bleeding with a layup, but KU center David McCormack answered with a dunk and the Jayhawk lead soon swelled to 15 on a Christian Braun layup.
 
The advantage was 20 on Jalen Wilson's 3 with 9:43 and then a McCormack fast break dunk gave Kansas a 77-55 lead with 3:40 to go.
 
Kansas' biggest lead was 27 when both teams had their reserves on the floor.
 
"They ran through things all day," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They put five guys in who probably hadn't seen time since they got to school and they ran right by us."
 
Today's game was very similar to last year's loss at Allen Fieldhouse when the Mountaineers were in it at halftime before Kansas stepped on the gas pedal after intermission.
 
Kansas shot 51% from the floor (36 of 70) and got a game-high 23 points from 6.6-points-per-game scorer Jalen Wilson – 16 of those coming during KU's 52-point second half. KU outscored WVU 52-28 after the break.
 
"We missed a bunch of shots and then got our heads down, and you don't want to get your heads down against these guys," Huggins said. 
 
McCormack, who played just nine minutes in Tuesday night's victory over Iowa State, got back into coach Bill Self's good graces by scoring 19 points and grabbing 15 rebounds against an overmatched Mountaineer front line. Ten of those rebounds came on the offensive glass.
 
"I don't know what's been going on here, but the guy is a first-round pick the way he rebounds and the way he runs," Huggins said of the 6-foot-10 senior forward. "He's really worked on his jump shot and finishing around the rim. Of course, it's easier to finish around the rim when you're bigger than everybody else, too."
 
Kansas' 54-to-20 advantage in paint scoring was the telling stat of the afternoon.
 
Also, a matchup of the Big 12's top two scorers Ochai Agbaji and Taz Sherman never materialized. Agbaji hit his season average with 20, but Sherman had his roughest game of the season by making just 1 of 9 from the floor and scoring a season-low 5 points.
 
"To be fair, Taz is not 100% back from the COVID," Huggins said. "He's not near what he was. He's not as bouncy. He's certainly doesn't have the ability to play long periods of time. We played him too long because we depend on him so much."
 
WVU's other top scorer, Sean McNeil, tallied 10 on 4 of 11 shooting. McNeil scored 24 in last year's loss in Lawrence.
 
Jalen Bridges tallied 12 and hit two of West Virginia's four 3-pointers for the afternoon. He also grabbed 11 rebounds.
 
Senior guard Malik Curry made up some of scoring deficiencies by tallying a season-high 23 points coming off the bench. He was 6 of 13 from the floor and made all 11 of his free throw attempts.
 
Twenty-one of West Virginia's 59 points came from the foul line as WVU connected on only 17 of its 63 shot attempts for 27%.
 
Osabuohien came off the bench to grab 10 boards.
 
"Gabe wasn't Gabe today, Kedy (Kedrian Johnson) wasn't Kedy and that's kind of what happens," Huggins said. "All of those guys have been sick and that's the reality."
 
"When you're not as athletic nor as big and strong you have to make compensations by playing harder and concentrating on blocking out every time – not just once in a while," Huggins added.
 
West Virginia, which drops to 13-3, 2-2, is now 0-10 all-time at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
WVU returns to the Coliseum to face top-ranked Baylor on Tuesday night in a special 5 p.m. tip that will be televised nationally on ESPN2.