Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used some torrid 3-point shooting and some clutch free throw shooting down the stretch to upset third-ranked Kansas 91-85 Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Of all the wins West Virginia has had against Kansas at the WVU Coliseum – six of them coming from 2014 through 2021 – this one was the most unlikely.
 
"We had to step up to the plate and make free throws and we did today," West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said. Eilert, an Osborne, Kansas, native, grew up admiring Kansas basketball before attending Kansas State. "It's special. I grew up in Kansas and my family is all Kansas State grads and the fact that the Jayhawks are just down the road, you are either a Kansas fan or a K-State fan.
 
"I always respected them, and they've been incredible over the years, and the fact that I can shake hands with Bill Self after a win is going to go a long way for my confidence in terms of moving forward in coaching," Eilert added.

"I thought they were great; I thought that everyone on their team played exceptionally well, especially in the first half offensively," said Self, now 5-7 in 12 games at the WVU Coliseum. "We couldn't guard them, and we didn't come prepared, I don't think, to defend against guys who are really good shooters and can go get their own, such as (RaQuan) Battle. So, I thought they were terrific."
 
The Jayhawks, coming off a 24-point road victory at Oklahoma State and having an extra day advantage in preparation time, shot 53.8% from the floor, outscored the Mountaineers 44 to 26 in the paint and 16 to 8 in fastbreak points. But West Virginia made 9-of-11 from 3 at one point in the first half and converted 21 of 25 from the free throw line, including 9-of-10 in the final 34 seconds of the game to pull off a stunner.
 
Overall, West Virginia made 12 of 21 from behind the arc, hit 29 of 56 overall, and outrebounded Kansas 31 to 22. 
 
That's correct – OUTREBOUNDED KANSAS BY NINE.
 
"We couldn't come into today's game minus-12 or minus-15 on the glass and tonight against one of the best teams in the country, we were plus-nine on the glass," Eilert said. "That's the type of effort we need each and every night to be competitive."
 
West Virginia has a minus-1.6 deficit on the glass for the season and grabbed just three offensive rebounds in Wednesday night's loss at Oklahoma, but got nine offensive boards against the Jayhawks, including four from Patrick Suemnick, who scored a career-high 20 points against KU's 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson.
 
The biggest offensive rebounds were grabbed late in the game by Battle, off Noah Farrakhan's miss leading to two Quinn Slazinski free throws with 34 seconds left. Then another offensive rebound, this one from Slazinski, came after his second free throw attempt fell short leading to two more successful free throws.
 
Kerr Kriisa's two free throws with 20 seconds left, two more by Noah Farrakhan that were sandwiched between Kevin McCullar's 3 from the wing that was changed to a 2 after a replay review, and two more from Kriisa after he stole Dickinson's inbound pass sealed the victory.
 
Battle led the Mountaineers with 23 points on 7 of 14 shooting and scored frequently in the first half against three different defenders.
 
Suemnick's career-high scoring total came on 8 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 6 from the foul line. Kriisa chipped in with 15, including some big early 3s in the first half to help the Mountaineers score a season-high 51 points in the first half.
 
This was the latest in a series of positive performances from Suemnick after his 12-point effort in the loss at Houston and getting inserted into the starting lineup against Kansas State.
 
"He just keeps giving us more and more and it's so great to have, especially with Jesse (Edwards) coming back and not really having a backup five," Eilert said. "He's done an incredible job for us filling that void and giving us a spark." 
 
Kansas (15-3, 3-2) kept pace with McCullar scoring a game-high 24 points on 10 of 14 shooting. McCullar got into early foul trouble, which limited his court time to 14 minutes in the first half.
 
Dickinson, the No. 1-rated transfer portal player from Michigan, scored 19 points, but just 6 after intermission. Freshman Johnny Furphy scored 13 and KJ Adams added 11 for the Jayhawks.
 
"They are inside-out and they live in that paint with Hunter," Eilert said. "We did a pretty good job there, but Furphy got hot. (Nicholas) Timberlake got hot and I was little concerned when the score was 51-all at the half. It's hard to win giving up that many points."
 
There were 18 lead changes and 10 ties during the game. Kansas' biggest lead was seven with 16:13 left in the first half and West Virginia's biggest lead was seven with 6:49 left in the game.
 
Eight of the nine players who got into the game for the Mountaineers scored. Guard Seth Wilson came off the bench to make all three of his second-half 3-point attempts for 9 points. Slazinski scored 8, Kobe Johnson had 7, Akok Akok had 5 and Noah Farrakhan, who handed out a team-high six assists, contributed 4.
 
"I don't know if we've had a game this year with 19 assists," Eilert said. "The ball wasn't sticking, and we continued to make the extra pass. We can't use that comfort dribble to allow them to recover and make those adjustments and rotations on the backside."
 
It was Farrakhan, Kriisa and Slazinski feeding Suemnick in the pick-and-roll against Dickinson that led to several one-on-one baskets at the glass.
 
"I wanted to put Hunter in the pick-and-roll and cover a ball screen all night long and it worked out in some cases, but at other times indirect passes got ran through," Eilert admitted. "Regardless, that was the game plan to put him in a ball screen situation and see how he handles it."
 
West Virginia outscored Kansas 40-34 after intermission. Second half struggles have led to defeats this year against Monmouth, St. John's, Radford, Kansas State and Oklahoma.
 
Kansas won two straight against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State after falling 65-60 at UCF on Jan. 10.
 
West Virginia, now 7-11, 2-3, upset 25^th-ranked Texas last Saturday night at the Coliseum.
 
At the end of tonight's game, WVU students poured on to the floor to celebrate and remain with the team to sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" afterward.
 
"There was some bad weather, but we fed off the energy of the crowd tonight," Eilert said. "People found a way to get here. We've had our struggles this year, but our fans are still with us."
 
Tonight's victory over third-ranked Kansas was Eilert's second against a ranked team in a span of a week and West Virginia's first against a top-5-ranked opponent since knocking off No. 4 Baylor 76-64 on March 7, 2020, at the Coliseum. The 91 points matches West Virginia's scoring output in its 91-81 victory over Toledo back on Dec. 23.
 
An announced crowd of 12,208 watched tonight's game.
 
The unpredictable Mountaineers return to the road next Tuesday night to face the very UCF team that upset Kansas and also boasts a conference win over Texas.