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Bill Self: WVU’s Deuce McBride ‘Was a First-Team All-American’ against Kansas

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(Dale Sparks/WVU Athletics)

For Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, the reason why the No. 23 Jayhawks lost to No. 17 West Virginia Saturday afternoon was pretty simple.

“If guys put up big numbers offensively and you give up 91 [points] on the road, you’re going to get your butt beat every time,” Self said following the Mountaineers 91-79 win.

Both of WVU’s starting guards, Miles “Deuce” McBride and Taz Sherman, set new career-highs with 31 and 25 points, respectively, and junior forward Derek Culver scored 19 with nine rebounds down low.

“McBride totally dominated the game,” Self said. “He was a first-team All-American tonight the way he played. He hit every big shot, made all his free throws, took care of the ball and had eight assists.”

McBride finished Saturday’s game with 31 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and three steals. He shot 8 of 15 from the floor, 4 of 5 from beyond the arc and a perfect 9 for 9 from the foul line. Sherman shot 9 of 17 from the floor and 4 of 7 from 3-point range and was also perfect, 3 for 3, on free throws.

“I can’t remember a time since we’ve been here where other players had big games [against us],” Self said. “Usually, it’s a [former Kansas State forward] Michael Beasley or an [former Missouri forawrd] Arthur Johnson throwing it inside and whipping our ass that way. We usually don’t have just guards go whip us. That’s what happened tonight with those two [McBride and Sherman].”

For WVU, it was the first time since the 2018-19 season that the Mountaineers defeated the Jayhawks. In both games last season and the first meeting this year, the Mountaineers held the lead at halftime but allowed Kansas to come back and win all three. WVU held a halftime lead again in this game, 44-34, and it looked like history was going to repeat itself early on in the second. In just over two minutes, the Jayhawks erased WVU’s lead and tied the game at 47.

“It was a tie game with 16 minutes left and we had the game right where we wanted to and [McBride and Sherman] just took over down the stretch,” Self said.

“I think we challenged [our players],” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “We’ve been there before, we’ve done that before and the results haven’t been good. I think it was more challenging them and them responding to the challenge more than anything else.”

WATCH: Bob Huggins Kansas Postgame

When Kansas came back from the 10-point deficit so quickly after halftime, McBride said the Mountaineers never panicked and held on to the belief that they would win.

“We know it’s a game of runs,” McBride said. “We knew they were going to make a run at some point, I didn’t think it was going to be the first two minutes, but we weathered the storm and gave it back to them. They’re going to attack us, we’ve got to keep going at them.”

WATCH: Miles McBride, Taz Sherman and Derek Culver On WVU’s Win Over Kansas

McBride, West Virginia’s leading scorer this season, came into Saturday’s game coming off of his two worst offensive performances of the season scoring just nine points in each of the team’s previous two games against Florida and Iowa State.

“I think I came out a little more motivated today, knowing how I had played,” McBride said. “I hadn’t played up to how I expect to play. Things happen, shots fall, shots rim out, and you just keep going.”

Saturday’s win was the first time McBride had experienced defeating the Jayhawks in his time as a Mountaineer. In fact, the only current Mountaineers who had beaten the Jayhawks prior to Saturday were juniors Culver, Emmitt Matthews and Jordan McCabe.

“It just made me feel good, personally,” Culver said postgame. “I know everybody on the team had the same feeling. [Kansas junior Ochai] Agbaji said this was the game of the year for them, so for us to go out there and win the way that we did, it speaks a lot for us.”

This story has been updated to include Miles McBride’s corrected point total of 31

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