The West Virginia men’s basketball team lost to Kansas State in overtime 94-90 on Monday, after trailing by as much as 25 points in regulation.
Kansas State has now set an NCAA DI record with their seventh overtime win this season, surviving the Mountaineers’ comeback.
Down the stretch, West Virginia would make three separate unanswered runs to erase the deficit (7-0, 12-0 and 10-0) capitalizing off of 16 Kansas State turnovers in the second half. WVU would outscore K-State 53-31 in the second half after being down 48-26 at the half, they shot 50% from the field and 69.2% from three in the second half compared to 33.3% and 16.7% in the first.
RaeQuan Battle led the Mountaineers with 28 points, shooting 10 of 20 from the field and six of nine from three, Kerr Kriisa also had 25. Tylor Perry had 29 points for the Wildcats shooting seven of 12 from the field, six of 11 from three and nine of 10 from the free throw line.
West Virginia got off to a slow start offensively having missed five straight field goals after Battle hit a jumper on the team’s first attempt by the U16 timeout. Kansas State wasn’t exactly firing either, however, shooting three of nine in roughly the first five minutes of the game.
The Mountaineers tied the game up at eight with 13:22 left in the first half after the Wildcats went almost three minutes without scoring. A three from Noah Farrakhan at 12:43 would put WVU up 11-10 following a K-State FG to end the drought.
WVU would then struggle to find consistency on offense, shooting 11 of 33 from the field and just two of 12 from three in the first half. While Kansas State would build momentum and their lead 48-26, ending the first half going five of the field. They shot 11 of 19 from three in the first half.
The Mountaineers were out-rebounded 25-14 in the first half, yet committed two less turnovers, 8-6. Kansas State had nine fast break points in the first 20 minutes, while WVU had none.
West Virginia would continue to struggle to begin the second half, with the Wildcats continuing to shoot extremely well from three. However, they made a small 7-0 run in the middle of the second half.
WVU started to cut into the deficit making a 19-2 run with under 10 minutes left to play, capitalizing off of Kansas State turnovers.
With 3:16 left Kansas State would call timeout while West Virginia was on a 17-2 run and the Wildcats having not made a field goal over the last 4:45. WVU was only down 74-72 after trailing by as much as 25 points.
A three-pointer by Kriisa would give West Virginia the lead with 2:13 left to play. The Mountaineers made a 31-7 run over the last 11 minutes to hold a 79-77 lead with under a minute to play.
A late foul by Jesse Edwards would send the Wildcats to the line, with them being in the double-bonus allowing them to tie the game at 79 and send the game to overtime.
West Virginia led just once in overtime after a Jesse Edwards free throw with the Wildcats pulling ahead and leading by as much as six points. Edwards would foul out with 3:24 left in OT.
WVU pulled within one with 35 seconds left but was running out of time to take the lead.
In the end, Kansas State made clutch free throws to secure the victory, while also containing WVU defensively. The Wildcats shot 75% from the field in OT on just three attempts compared to WVU shooting 20% on 10 attempts.
Perry had nine of Kansas State’s 15 points in overtime, shooting a perfect two of two from the field, including one of one from three while also hitting all four of his field goals.
The Mountaineers out-rebounded K-State in OT 7-4 but struggled to close out the game, trailing most of overtime, having to foul the Wildcats. It would have been WVU’s first road win of the season to go along with the big comeback.
West Virginia will play Texas Tech in their next game-action after the loss, with tip-off set for 6 p.m. EST on Saturday.
