LAWRENCE, Kan. — The story continues re-writing itself when West Virginia visits Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
For the fourth time in their past six visits, the Mountaineers went into halftime either in front of or even with the Jayhawks. The result remains the same, though, after No. 2 Kansas squelched No. 16 WVU’s offense in the second half for a 60-53 win.
In the second half, the Mountaineers (11-2, 0-1 Big 12) shot 28 percent from the field (7 of 25), 60 percent from the free-throw line (9 of 15) and missed all four of their three-point attempts.
“We pretty much just handed them the game,” said West Virginia point guard Miles McBride. “I think we were the better team, but when you let a good team take advantage of good opportunities, it’s going to hurt you.”
West Virginia was up 30-24 at the break, but squandered opportunities to increase that margin when it went the final 3:36 of the half without a bucket.
“If we would have went in up 32-24, 33-24, it would have helped momentum coming out,” McBride said. “Then they’re really looking at the scoreboard thinking ‘Man, we’ve really got to get something going.’ They start to panic a little more than usual. We needed in those last 3 minutes to open it up.”
Kansas coach Bill Self was on the same page as McBride.
“We were lucky we got it to six at halftime,” Self said.
Self also was of the opinion that his team likely would not have won if the game was played anywhere but Allen Fieldhouse.
“The crowd certainly helped us,” Self said. “If that game was on the road today, we probably don’t win.”
The Jayhawks (11-2, 1-0) needed less than 3 minutes in the second half to tie the game up. They took their first lead since the first minute of the game when Udoka Azuibuike threw down an alley-oop dunk over Oscar Tshiebwe’s head and managed to get a free throw out of it to boot.
The lob became Kansas’ go-to offensive weapon as they extended their lead down the stretch. The Jayhawks scored 18 of their points on dunks or layups.
“That was what we were trying to do,” Self said. “As much as we like to throw it up, we probably miss it 25-50 percent of the time. But when we needed it, we got it today.”
Tshiebwe explained why Kansas’ strategy was able to put WVU’s forwards in a no-man’s land defensively.
“We had a little bit of trouble,” he said. “If you try to help on the ball screen, he can go to the rim and it’s always a dunk. But when somebody’s penetrating and you help, they threw the alley-oop.
“When you play somebody like [Udoka Azubuike], you don’t have to help that much on defense. You have to trust your teammates.”
Kansas had little choice but to attack the rim as it was just 3-for-17 from three-point range.
West Virginia was even colder for an extended stretch of the second half. The Mountaineers went 8:47 without a field goal. After McBride scored with 13 minutes left, West Virginia didn’t make another basket until Taz Sherman’s jumper with 4:13 remaining.
Tshiebwe led the Mountaineers with 17 points and 17 rebounds, but 15 of those points came in the first half.
Azubuike had 17 points and 11 boards for the Jayhawks. Guard Devon Dotson added 16 points for Kansas.
Next up
It’s a short turnaround for West Virginia, which visits Oklahoma State on Monday night. That’s by design, as the Mountaineers requested the Big 12 office to schedule them for two away games while school is out of session for winter break.
The Cowboys (9-4, 0-1) were blasted at Texas Tech in their Big 12 opener, losing 85-50.