Box Score KANSAS CITY – West Virginia used an 8-0 run over a two-minute stretch late in the second half to knock off No. 8-seeded Kansas State 73-67 in the opening game of the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship Wednesday night at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
 
After Nijel Pack's layup reduced West Virginia's lead to 61-60 with 5:57 remaining, WVU, within a span of two minutes, got a deep 3 from Taz Sherman, another 3 from Malik Curry and then a Curry steal leading to Sean McNeil's layup to boost the Mountaineers' advantage to 69-61.
 
A Sherman jumper with 1:34 got West Virginia's lead to 71-62 – it's biggest of the game – quieting a partisan Kansas State crowd.
 
McNeil, who finished with a game-high 21 points, had the hot hand for West Virginia in the first half in helping the Mountaineers to a 36-31 halftime advantage. He scored 15 of his 21 before intermission.
 
"It's been a while since I've seen a 3 go in, at least consistently," McNeil said. "It's definitely refreshing. We came into this game treating it as a new season, so I looked at it this way as well."
 
K-State relied primarily on the 3-ball, hitting six in the first half and making 9-of-19 at one point early in the second half before finally cooling off. K-State connected on just two of its remaining 11 triples to finish the game 11 of 30.
 
Kansas State (14-17) had a brief lead in first half but was never able to get it back in the second half, although the Wildcats managed to tie the game at 42-42 and 45-45.
 
"Obviously, we had our chances," Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. "We cut it to 61-60 and Mike (McGuirl), 42% from 3, wide open, and if he makes that we take the lead and who knows what happens."
 
For West Virginia, Curry came off the bench to contribute 17 points to help compensate for Sherman's subpar shooting night. The All-Big 12 Second Team choice was 1 of 6 from the floor in the first half and connected on 4 of 11 overall for 9 points, although five came at critical moments in the game.
 
"I felt like I was playing pretty fast in the first half, and I had to slow down," Sherman said. "I had a couple of bad shots, but I started taking good shots."
 
For K-State, Mark Smith tallied 17 and Ishael Massoud contributed 13 – all coming in the first half.
 
West Virginia (16-16) made 28 of its 53 field goal attempts for 52.8% with McNeil hitting seven of 10 and Curry making six of 12.
 
West Virginia had a 33 to 28 rebounding advantage and converted 11 of 14 from the free throw line. Two other areas that benefited West Virginia were bench scoring, 29 to 5, and paint scoring, 32 to 22.
 
"If you look at the stats, the biggest thing is the bench, 29 to 5," Weber said.
 
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins and Weber embraced after the game and had an extended conversation. There has been a lot of speculation going around that this might be Weber's final season coaching at K-State.
 
"I've known Bruce for a long, long time – back to other days, and Bruce is a heck of a basketball coach," Huggins said. "His kids play extremely hard and they're very well coached. I just told him how much I appreciate him."
 
Afterward, Weber was asked to reflect on his 10-year tenure at Kansas State.
 
He talked about the two conference championships his teams won and all of the outstanding coaches preceding him who couldn't do that at Kansas State, most notably Lon Kruger, Dana Altman, Huggins and Frank Martin.
 
He also mentioned his time spent on the NCAA Ethics Committee and his disappointment that more hasn't been done to punish the schools involved in the FBI investigation a few years ago.
 
"I'm in meetings and I was told they were going to take care of the people in the FBI stuff, so I told somebody I'm going to grow my hair until something happens," he said. "Obviously, it's still growing. That's the sad part of our business.
 
"Lon Kruger told me the other day all the guys in the FBI (investigation) except one are going to be in the NCAA Tournament," Weber added, before changing the subject. "I'm proud of these guys – love them; loved the guys I've coached."

Tonight's victory was the first time West Virginia has won back-to-back games since Jan. 8-11 when it defeated Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
 
WVU extends its season by another game and will face tournament top-seed Kansas in tomorrow afternoon's second game, which will tip off approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion the first quarterfinal game pitting No. 4-seeded Texas against No. 5-seeded TCU at 1:30 p.m. ET. 
 
Facing the Jayhawks was the first question Huggins was asked at the conclusion of tonight's game. 
 
"Can I just think about this one for a while?" he said. "You know, we've had great games with them over the years and this might be one of Bill's (Self) best teams.
 
"Actually, I would like to say – and make sure you write this – I think Bill ought to win the national championship, and I think if he doesn't they probably ought to fire him," he joked.