WVU Basketball
Terrible Start Leads to Bad Loss for WVU Basketball at Kansas State

WVU basketball couldn’t bounce back from a bad loss, losing 73-60 on the road at Kansas State Saturday evening.
Coming off a disappointing loss to Arizona State, No. 23 West Virginia (13-6, 4-4 Big 12) was off from the opening tip. Kansas State (8-11, 2-6), which had lost six straight, opened a 19-2 lead over the first seven minutes of the game.
After making its first attempt of the game, WVU missed 11 straight shots by the time Kansas State built its lead. Dug McDaniel hit back-to-back jumpers then sank a three-pointer to cap off a 17-0 run for the Wildcats.
Javon Small’s dunk with 11:09 left in the first half broke a nearly eight-minute stretch where the Mountaineers did not make a field goal. WVU started to find its footing in the middle of the half, but Kansas State was able to put together another large run, 11-0 this time, to lead by 24 points at the half, 42-18.
West Virginia came out with much better energy in the second half, opening on an 11-2 run to cut KSU’s lead down to 15. Things slowed down for the Mountaineers, however, as Toby Okani and Eduardo Andre both went to the bench with foul trouble.
The closest West Virginia ever got was 14 points on back-to-back steals by Small that turned into fastbreak points. WVU missed nine of its next 10 shots as KSU built its lead back up to 20, 64-44.
West Virginia’s final push got the lead down to 12 with two minutes to play, but the Mountaineers ran out of time to try and complete the comeback.
Small led all scorers with 22 points to go with five assists. Toby Okani scored 13 points and Sencire Harris had 12. It was the second game in a row West Virginia shot below 40%, finishing at 36.8%.
McDaniel led five Wildcats that finished in double figures with 15 points. David N’Guessan scored 14, Max Jones had 12, Coleman Hawkins scored 11 and CJ Jones finished with 10.
It is the first back-to-back losses of the season for WVU basketball, who hosts No. 7 Houston back in the Coliseum on Wednesday.