The West Virginia Mountaineers have suffered their first back-to-back losses of the season. After a tough loss at home to Arizona State, WVU came out against Kansas State as flat as they have looked all season. The final score was 63-50.
Kansas State jumped out to a 19-2 lead to start the game and never looked back. Even after a hard-fought second half by the Mountaineers, the gap was still too much to make up for.
“When you go on the road, you cannot come out of the gates the way we did. You got to have a full 40 (minutes) and we didn’t have that tonight,” said Darian DeVries. “I thought the second half was more like us. We competed and didn’t quit. You just can not put yourself in that type of hole,” he added.
The simple answer to the Mountaineer’s struggles is Javon Small needs help. He scored 22 points against Kansas State shooting 43.8% from the field. Even with teams keying in on Small, he has found a way to put up big numbers
The remaining Mountaineers have struggled, shooting a combined 36.8% from the field. A big factor is the team is still without their second-leading scorer Tucker DeVries, who may red-shirt and not return to the court this season.
The team will need to turn it around quickly, in a Big 12 with no games off. They will face seventh-ranked Houston at the Coliseum on Jan. 29.
