Turnovers doom West Virginia in the Octagon, 79-75

Kansas State trailed and Barry Brown was scoreless at intermission. That only meant the Wildcats and their sophomore guard were saving their best for last against No. 7 West Virginia.

Brown scored 15 in the second half, including his team’s final five points, as K-State pulled the upset 79-75 to deal the Mountaineers their second straight loss.

In a streaky game at sold-out, blacked-out Bramlage Coliseum, the Wildcats erased a 12-point deficit in the first half and lost an 11-point lead in the final 8 minutes. But with West Virginia floundering in its own flood of turnovers — instead of forcing them — K-State (15-4, 4-3) shot 53 percent in the second half and placed all five starters in double-figures scoring.

BOXSCORE: Kansas State 79, West Virginia 75

“I kept telling the players if you get stops they will not press us,” said Wildcats coach Bruce Weber. “Then they even went zone. I do not think they have played zone a single possession all year.”

Kamau Stokes overcame a tender ankle to score 15 points in 36 minutes. DJ Johnson finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, and Dean Wade scored 13 as K-State snapped a five-game skid in the series.

Wesley Iwundu finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, including a layup off an isolation play that put K-State ahead to stay at 69-68 with 4:02 left.

“We’ve got to guard. We can’t keep turning people loose at the rim,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. His team came in allowing 63 points per game but has yielded 77 or more in its four losses.

Tarik Phillip scored a team-high 20 points off the bench, while guard Jevon Carter produced his second consecutive double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Yet the Mountaineers (15-4, 4-3) couldn’t overcome 23 turnovers, the most in the three-year Press Virginia era.

Nate Adrian, Teyvon Myers and Sagaba Konate committed four turnovers each against a K-State half-court defense described by Huggins as “not something (designed) to turn people over.” Just as in the home loss to Oklahoma on Wednesday night, West Virginia suffered through a negative turnover margin.

“How does Nate have four turnovers?” Huggins asked. “Nate is the most intelligent basketball player that I’ve had in years and years and years, so how does he have four turnovers? He turned it over four times trying to make plays that weren’t there.”

“We just threw it away. What kills you is unforced turnovers.”

While carelessness left the coach perturbed with his team, a 30-19 foul disparity didn’t escape Huggins’ attention. How could it when big men Elijah Macon and Brandon Watkins fouled out and Konate, Carter and Adrian collect four each.

“Things I didn’t think on the officiating side were equitable,” Huggins said. “We had two guys that play the five position foul out and the other one had four (fouls). So we had 14 fouls, and they had the most physical player in the league.”

He was referencing the 6-foot-9 Johnson, the lone K-State player to pick up four fouls.

Where’s Ahmad?

A 1-for-6 shooting night left Esa Ahmad with three points. Though his blocked shot gave WVU the ball trailing 76-73 in the final 30 seconds, Ahmad threw away a pass on the ensuing possession.

The sophomore’s recent three-game slide looks like this: 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting with 10 turnovers.

Defensive deja vu

With 5 seconds left in the half, Stokes raced downcourt to hit a buzzer-beating floater— bringing to mind a similar coast-to-coast play 72 hours earlier by Oklahoma’s Jordan Woodard.

Stokes’ basket capped a 10-0 run in the final 2:14 as K-State wiped out most of a 38-26 deficit.

Free throws start falling

Unlike earlier losses, the Mountaineers didn’t foul things up at the free-throw line. Saturday they made 21-of-24, raising their season average to 65 percent.

Quotable

“It’s great, especially being on this team last year and not being able to get over that hump.” — Barry Brown on K-State beating a ranked team for the first time this season

Quotable II

“Let’s be realistic: We scored 75 points and turned it over 23 times. What’s wrong with our offense? Twenty-three turnovers.” — Bob Huggins





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