No. 9 West Virginia uses smothering defense to beat Kansas State 70-55

The first technical foul was good fortune. The second was a gift.

It was hard to imagine things aligning any better for Kansas State in the early going Tuesday when West Virginia guard Tarik Phillip picked up a technical foul and coach Bob Huggins received another seconds later.

The score was tied, and the Wildcats were headed to the free-throw line for four shots, plus the opportunity to score on the ensuing possession. It was the rare chance to score up to seven points without surrendering the ball, the type of sequence a college basketball team dreams of.

But K-State was unable to take advantage, converting just one of four free throws and then missing a layup.

It was a sign of things to come. West Virginia went on to smother K-State for a 70-55 victory that at times felt more lopsided than the score indicated.

“Momentum changed,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said of the sequence. “I really thought we had a bad stretch there offensively and they got fired up, so I guess it was a good move. They got the calls after that and played at a high level.”

The No. 9 Mountaineers, 17-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big 12, were better than the Wildcats in every way, holding them to a season low 35 percent shooting — with many of the misses resulting in air balls — and pressuring them into 19 turnovers with a full-court press.

West Virginia led 34-25 at halftime, and never allowed K-State, 12-8 and 2-6, to make things interesting.

The result was a downer for a K-State team that was coming off its best showing of the season, an 89-63 blowout victory against Oklahoma State on Saturday. This was the opposite.

“We show moments where we can be so good then we come back and do this,” K-State guard Justin Edwards said. “It was just like when we played Texas Tech and Iowa State. We showed we were really good against Texas Tech and then just laid an egg against Iowa State. We have to be more consistent.”

Nothing seemed to go right Tuesday. Not even a pair of technical fouls on the opposition.

As fate would have it, the fouls aided West Virginia. It started slowly, allowing K-State to take a 7-5 lead. And the score was tied 7-7 with 16:33 remaining in the first half when Phillip earned his technical for taunting after making a driving layup. Then Huggins excessively argued with officials about the call and earned his.

The technical fouls were like kerosene on a fire, enraging a sparsely filled crowd at WVU Coliseum, as well as the team it was cheering for. The Mountaineers quickly picked up their effort and left the Wildcats in the dust.

Instead of falling behind by three scores, the Mountaineers trailed 8-7 when Dean Wade made one of two free throws and Justin Edwards missed two. Then they scored 10 consecutive points and held K-State without a point for the next 6:09.

Just like that, K-State went from eying a lead to trailing 17-8. It fought an uphill battle the rest of the way.

K-State stayed cold all game, going 20 of 57 from the field, 14 of 23 from the foul line and 1 of 18 from three-point range. Kamau Stokes made the lone three fewer than two minutes in.

“After they got those two technicals we just weren’t strong,” Edwards said, “and the refs stopped giving us calls, because we weren’t playing strong. I think that set the tone for them and for the refs.”

Huggins admitted he intentionally sought a technical foul.

“I’m to the point I am going to defend our guys,” Huggins said. “They can’t do it, obviously. Somebody has to, so it might as well be me. Tarik, I still don’t know what he did to get a technical. I don’t know what happened, but I am going to defend him.”

In the first meeting between these teams, K-State performed so well against West Virginia’s press that Huggins scrapped it and switched to a half-court zone, a move that ultimately helped his team win 87-83 in double overtime.

This time around, the Mountaineers sped up the Wildcats and got them into foul trouble. Stokes, Edwards and forward D.J. Johnson all saw limited minutes in the first half after getting two fouls. Johnson eventually fouled out.

Edwards led K-State with 11 points, but if not for a late layup the Wildcats wouldn’t have produced a single double-digit scorer.

“They make you go fast and kind of take the coaching staff out of the equation,” Weber said. “They make you play basketball and read. The first time we played, they pressed us, we beat it, we still got into our stuff, we got them spread out. This time they said we are going to trap them and keep trapping them.”

Jonathan Holton led West Virginia with 14 points, Jaysean Paige added 12 and Nathan Adrian scored 10.

K-State, struggling with consistency issues, was unable to achieve the same balance. Its young roster once again struggled to string two quality games together.

That will give it something to think about before it returns home to face Mississippi on Saturday. This effort can’t be repeated.

“I didn’t think we played very strong,” Weber said. “It was not a good night.”

No. 9 WEST VIRGINIA 70

KANSAS STATE 55

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Percentages: FG .351, FT .609. Three-Point Goals: 1-18, .056 (Stokes 1-4, Brown 0-1, Freeman 0-1, Ervin II 0-1, Schoen 0-1, Hurt 0-3, Edwards 0-3, Wade 0-4). Blocked Shots: 7 (Johnson 3, Wade 2, Edwards 2). Turnovers: 19 (Iwundu 6, Brown 4, Stokes 3, Edwards 2, Wade 2, Johnson, Hurt). Steals: 9 (Iwundu 3, Stokes 2, Edwards, Brown, Ervin II, Hurt). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: Johnson.

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Percentages: FG .426, FT .594. Three-Point Goals: 5-18, .278 (Adrian 2-2, Myers 1-2, Carter 1-3, Paige 1-5, Holton 0-1, Phillip 0-1, Miles Jr. 0-4). Blocked Shots: 3 (Carter 2, Phillip). Turnovers: 18 (Williams 6, Phillip 4, Macon 3, Holton 2, Carter, Paige, Adrian). Steals: 8 (Paige 4, Macon, Phillip, Holton, Carter). Technical Fouls: Phillip, Bench. Fouled Out: None.

Half: West Virginia 34-25. Attendance: 9,936. Officials: Doug Sirmons, Ray Natili, Terry Oglesby.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 7:06 PM with the headline "No. 9 West Virginia uses smothering defense to beat Kansas State 70-55."