Even the most loyal fans in college basketball mistakenly sensed No. 3 Kansas was finished.
Until West Virginia’s mistakes provided a crack.
The Jayhawks wiped out a 14-point deficit in the final 2:43 of regulation before emerging 84-80 winners in overtime, a swift and sudden swing to be memorialized at Allen Fieldhouse and remembered on the opposite side for the manner in which the No. 9 Mountaineers rapidly decomposed.
A 64-50 lead vanished because West Virginia (20-6, 8-5) lost four backcourt turnovers and missed four of nine free throws, including the front end of a one-and-one. Kansas (23-3, 11-2) capitalized by erupting for a 21-7 run, with 19 of those points coming from Frank Mason and Devonte Graham.
Mason shot 3-of-13 from the floor yet finished with 24 points, making 16-of-18 at the foul line. Graham’s 18 points included two 3s early in overtime to put the surging Jayhawks in front for good.
“This would’ve been a good one, would’ve been great for NCAA seedings,” lamented West Virginia coach Bob Huggins “We just didn’t do what we had to do to win.”
The formula worked for much of the game as the visitors led for 34 minutes and held the Jayhawks to season-worst 34-percent shooting.
Then came the dramatic shift. Limited to 50 points in the game’s first 37 minutes, Kansas poured in 34 over the final 7:43.
Framing Monday night’s magical rally as “the most remarkable win I have ever been a part of,” Kansas coach Bill Self offered an addendum: “I still don’t know how we did it.”
A soldout crowd — which earlier in the night established a Guinness indoor noise record by eclipsing 130 decibels — was headed outdoors as West Virginia owned a convincing late-game lead. KU’s first back-to-back home losses in 27 seasons seemed a certainty.
“We just kept fighting and we believed in each other,” Mason said. “We were down 10 with like 2 minutes left and Coach said, ‘We can do this, guys. Just get stops and stay in attack mode.’”
Esa Ahmad’s 20 points led West Virginia, which fell to 0-5 all-time at The Phog, suffering its second OT loss in three seasons. Tarik Phillip scored 18 and made six steals but was hit with a five-second inbounds infraction and threw a panicked pass out of bounds to fuel KU’s comeback.
Said Nathan Adrian, who contributed 11 points, six assists and one intercepted inbounds pass of his own: “We just didn’t take care of the ball like we normally do.”
Those 21 turnovers represented an unraveling Huggins didn’t understand, considering how Press Virginia tests itself daily in practice.
“We had guys open, but we didn’t look up the floor,” he said. “(Kansas) had five guys on that side of halfcourt, so somebody’s open. All we have to do is catch it and look up right away, not bury our head and get trapped.”
In his encore to a 31-point performance at Texas Tech, freshman Josh Jackson failed to score in the opening 11 minutes. He closed with 14 points and 11 rebounds albeit on 4-of-13 shooting with six turnovers.
Mason and Graham also started cold, leaving the trio 3-of-18 at intermission. Yet Kansas still exacted a 16-0 run over a four-minute stretch, sparked by reserve Lagerald Vick, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half.
Mountaineers guard Jevon Carter scored the entirety of his 11 points in the opening 20 minutes, including a buzzer-beating 3 for a 39-32 edge. He took only one shot thereafter, hindered by what Huggins described as a sore knee.
Still, West Virginia maintained a cushion throughout most of the second half, never more convincing than when Phillip snagged a defensive rebound and raced downcourt for a lay-in that made it 64-50.
What felt like a knockout sequence became a false reading, as WVU let slip a double-digit lead for the fourth time in five Big 12 losses.
And Kansas, now 218-10 at home during the Self Era, inhaled its most fantastic finish yet.
“Those fans that left a little bit early missed a helluva finish,” Self said. “We have had some great ones here, but we have never come from 14 down with two-and-a-half left against the ninth-ranked team in the country.”
End of regulation
After Mason’s free throws tied the game with 21 seconds left in regulation, West Virginia set up the final shot only to have the ball stuck with Phillip on the right wing. His 22-foot miss at the buzzer didn’t put any pressure on the Kansas defense.
“I’m saying ‘Drive it, drive it, drive it’ and we shoot a 3,” Huggins said. “Makes no sense. Absolutely makes no sense.”
Self questions officiating
Most Big 12 fans outside Lawrence might choke at the notion of Self griping about Mason not getting calls.
”I was complaining to the officials all night long, ‘Geez, you guys don’t call any hand-checks. Give the kid a little bit of respect.’ But he ended up shooting 18 (free throws), so I assume that they did.”
Notes, numbers, etc.
West Virginia finished 20-of-29 at the foul line compared to the Jayhawks’ 33-of-44. The visitors were whistled for 31 fouls — including a technical on Phillip after he and Jackson exchanged light shoves — while KU drew 27 fouls. … Landon Lucas grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds though WVU led 44-42 on the glass. … Kansas held an 18-8 edge in points off turnovers. … Mason, Graham and Jackson played 40-plus minutes for the Jayhawks, while Adrian was the only WVU player extended beyond 32.