Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – West Virginia used 22 points from Kedrian Johnson and 20 from Emmitt Matthews Jr. to outlast 11^th-ranked Iowa State 76-71 in a tough, physical basketball game at the WVU Coliseum Wednesday night.
 
In this one, we had a guy pass the ball to himself for a layup, multiple replay reviews, one call overturned and a technical foul for taunting – and that was just in the first half!
 
For the game, Iowa State had three key players foul out – Tamin Lipsey, Osun Osunnyi and Robert Jones – and the Cyclones had seven fouls four minutes into the second half before getting their 10^th foul with half of the second half still remaining.
 
West Virginia took advantage of Iowa State's aggressiveness by making 26 of 31 from the foul line, which is where the game was won. The Mountaineers' final eight points came at the line after Iowa State went to a 1-3-1 zone and held them without a field goal over the final 5:53.
 
West Virginia's last field goal of the game was a Johnson 3 from the wing to give it a 68-62 lead.
 
"He made huge shots for us, huge," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said of Johnson.
 
Iowa State (16-7, 7-4) fell behind by 15 points with 4:36 left in the first half before going on a 17-8 run to close out the half, down 36-30.
 
The Cyclones scored nine quick points at the beginning of the second half to tie the game at 39, and took their first lead, 55-54, with 11:20 left on Jaren Holmes' three-point play. Iowa State also had leads of 58-57 and 60-57 before West Virginia rallied.
 
The Mountaineers' next six points came from the free throw line, two from Johnson and four from Erik Stevenson, and consecutive wing jumpers from Johnson, the first with his foot on the 3-point line and the second behind it, gave them their six-point advantage.
 
Gabe Kalscheur's driving layup with 5:12 left made it a two-point game, and Caleb Grill's two free throws with 2:36 left pulled the Cyclones to within one, 70-69.
 
Matthews' miss from the corner turned into a runout for Iowa State that led to Holmes' fastbreak layup with 1:26 left and a one-point Cyclone lead.
 
Following two Toussaint free throws, Grill had an opportunity to give Iowa State the lead back when he took Kedrian Johnson's turnover the length of the floor. However, he couldn't get his layup attempt from the right side of the basket to go down, and Kalscheur sent Toussaint back to the free throw line.
 
He made both, and then at the other end drew on offensive foul on Holmes along the far side of the court with four seconds left. Here, Huggins called timeout to draw up an inbounds play that eventually went to Matthews going toward West Virginia's basket. He was fouled by Holmes and hit the two game-clinching free throws.
 
The contest took 2 ½ hours to complete because of fouling and replay reviews.
 
"I was a little nervous when we lost the 15-point lead," Huggins said. "We beat arguably the best team in the league. They're good. They're extremely well coached and they don't have a lot of flaws."
 
After shooting well above 50% for most of the second half, the Cyclones missed six of their final seven field goal attempts and finished the game shooting 46%.
 
West Virginia shot just 36% in the second half and finished the game 21 of 40 for 42%.
 
Holmes led three double-figure Cyclone scorers with 18 points. Lipsey scored six points in a row to begin the second half and finished with 16, while Grill contributed 13.
 
Stevenson, coming off a career-high 34 points last Saturday against Oklahoma, was held to just 8 tonight on 1-of-6 shooting before fouling out with 2:20 left. He was called for an offensive foul while driving to the basket, wiping off two points which would have given the Mountaineers at least a three-point lead.
 
"We did all of this without Erik," Huggins said. "He struggled and I think that's a good sign that we can win without some of our go-to guys not playing as well."
 
Iowa State, which turned over Kansas 20 times in last Saturday's win in Ames, managed to produce just 11 turnovers tonight leading to only 10 points.
 
"We played hard, and I think our guards did a really good job," Huggins said. 
 
The Cyclones' big advantages were on the glass with a 30 to 23 rebounding edge and paint scoring, where they had 28 to West Virginia's 12.
 
The Mountaineers made 8 of 19 from 3-point distance with Kedrian Johnson and Tre Mitchell hitting three each.
 
Emerging forward James Okonkwo had another strong effort with four free throws, and team-high nine rebounds and three blocks.
 
"What James does around the rim is special," Huggins said.
 
A weeknight crowd of 11,573 watched tonight's game.
 
The victory boosts West Virginia's record to 15-9, 4-7, and gives the Mountaineers a third win over a top 15-ranked team in a span of 21 days.
 
WVU returns to the road to face fifth-ranked Texas Saturday afternoon in Austin. The Longhorns are coming off an 88-80 loss to Kansas on Monday night.