MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — West Virginia honored six seniors before their game on Saturday against No. 11 Kansas State. It was the three so-called ‘super-senior’ trio of Kedrian Johnson, Emmitt Matthews, and Erik Stevenson combined to score 70 points as the Mountaineers close the regular season with an 89-81 win over the Wildcats.
“It was a special day no question about it,” Stevenson said. “For us three, it’s our last home game ever.”
Matthews added, “I played with Keddy (Johnson) before and I played with Erik (Stevenson) before. I just had to learn how to play with both of them on the same court.”
Stevenson scored 27, while Johnson scored 23, and Matthews scored 20, which was 79% of WVU’s points.
“Those guys have been terrific, and they’ve gotten better and better and better,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said of the trio. “They’ve been forced growth because of the things that we continue to put on their backs.”
The first half was the start West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins feared. The Mountaineers seemed slow out of the gate, following their Senior Day ceremonies. Kansas State raced out to an 8-0 lead forcing a West Virginia timeout just over two minutes into the game.
“It seemed like they came out with a little more energy than what we did. We took some bad shots,” Huggins said. “[We] got it turned that’s the important thing.”
Out of the timeout the Mountaineers began to settle in, with Johnson making a three-pointer and Stevenson quickly making another three-pointer as the Mountaineers trailed by three.
The turnovers would stay with West Virginia for the entirety of the half. As the Wildcats opened the game, the Mountaineers aided their start with two turnovers. West Virginia would turn the ball over 12 times in the first half leading to 17 Kansas State points.
The Wildcats would not be free from the turnover bug either, turning it over 12 times of their own, leading to 12 Mountaineer points.
Trailing 31-24, West Virginia went on a 7-0 run over a 59-second span to tie the game at 31-31 and force a Kansas State timeout. The trio of Johnson, Matthews, and Stevenson would combine to score 33 of West Virginia’s 39 first-half points. Out of the timeout, Johnson went to the free throw line to give WVU a two-point lead, before the Mountaineers took a 39-37 lead into halftime.
“I want to give credit to West Virginia especially those seniors,” Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang said. “It’s always tough on senior night because some guys try to do too much, and some guys try not to do too much.”
In the second half, Stevenson would score WVU’s first five points as the Mountaineers kept their distance from Kansas State. The Wildcats would rely on Marquis Nowell to keep them in the game. Three of Kansas State’s first four shots were made by Nowell from three, as the Wildcats trailed 50-47 just after five minutes into the second.
West Virginia would go on a 14-5 run, with all 14 points scored by seniors. Tre Mitchell scored three, Stevenson scored three, Johnson scored four, and Matthews scored two, and Joe Toussaint scored two, with nine of the points coming at the free throw line.
“I feel like they got to the free throw line a little bit more than us and they got to the paint more than us,” Nowell said. “I feel like they were the aggressor the whole night.”
This would balloon WVU’s lead to 14 with 5:11 to play and Kansas State could never recover.
The Wildcats would not cut the deficit under 10 until in the final minute, while the Mountaineers would make their free throws late and only turned the ball over four times in the second half.
West Virginia made 22 of their 25 attempted free throws, while also scoring 23 points off of 20 Kansas State turnovers. The Wildcats forced 16 turnovers leading to 20 points, but only took 12 trips to the free throw line.
Johnson, Matthews, and Stevenson now will have played their final regular season game in college basketball. West Virginia moves on to the Big 12 Tournament, where they will either be the seven or eight seed.
“The bond that this team has is you can’t put it into words. But I think the bond us three have, it’s special. We do literally everything together,” Stevenson said.
