West Virginia men’s basketball was close to getting their first win away from the WVU Coliseum on Saturday, sticking with No. 6 Iowa State, before eventually falling 71-64.
The biggest problem for the Mountaineers in Saturday’s loss was turnovers.
“The critical stat going into the game was how are we going to handle their pressure and are we going to turn it over,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said after the game. “We didn’t take care of the ball and kind of lost our poise in some situations which led to the end result.”
West Virginia turned the ball over 23 times, leading to 29 points for Iowa State. Conversely, the Cyclones turned the ball over 13 times, leading to eight WVU points.
Now, the Mountaineers hit the road and face Kansas State on Monday. Manhattan, Kansas, is a place Eilert is quite familiar with, as he played and coached at Kansas State. Eilert is also a native of Osborne, Kansas.
The Wildcats already beat West Virginia earlier this season, knocking off the Mountaineers 81-67 back on Jan. 9. That game did not feature Jesse Edwards for the Mountaineers, who was injured. On Saturday, Edwards had 10 points, eight rebounds, and four blocks against Iowa State.
In their first meeting against Kansas State, one thing the Mountaineers struggled with was second-half shooting.
West Virginia led 42-40 at halftime, but were outscored by 16 in the second half. West Virginia shot 31 percent from the field and went 2-for-11 from three in the second half against Kansas State.
Kansas State is 16-11 and 6-8 in league play this season. They are coming off an 84-74 win over BYU this weekend, which broke a three-game losing streak for them.
The Wildcats have three players averaging 15 points per game in Cam Carter, Arthur Kaluma, and Tylor Perry. All three of them scored at least 17 points in the first meeting, with Carter leading the way with 23 points.
Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. from the Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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