Frank Mason held in check as KU falls to West Virginia 85-69

West Virginia’s fans booed Virginia native Frank Mason every time the Kansas guard touched the basketball in Tuesday’s 85-69 victory over the Jayhawks at WVU Coliseum.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence that Mason, a 5-foot-11 Big 12 player of the year candidate, had a rare off night — 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting, 3 of 7 from three — on a night the locals singled him out for rough treatment.

The facts remain that the conference’s leading scorer did have his lowest scoring output in eight league games, tying his 15-point outing in a win over Kansas State on Jan. 3.

“I didn’t think he was nearly as good as he has been on either end,” KU coach Bill Self said of offense and defense.

Mason — who had four rebounds, two assists, two steals and three turnovers — scored just five points on 2-of-9 shooting in the first half as KU (18-2, 7-1 Big 12) trailed West Virginia (16-4, 5-3) 38-35 at the break.

Self offered some theories as to why Mason may have been off his game, and they had nothing to do with the 13,694 fans making noise in a building where KU has now lost four straight games.

“Frank got the call on the first play (an offensive foul 8 seconds into the game). He missed a couple of shots afterward. I don’t think he was really plugged in after that,” said Self.

“They did a good job running two (players) at him. They got the ball out of his hands. That’s good strategy, obviously, make us play behind that. He missed some shots he’s normally been making.”

Led by lead ballhandler Mason, KU committed just 13 turnovers against a team known for its aggressive full-court press.

West Virginia, which was paced by a career-high scoring outburst of 27 points by forward Esa Ahmad, turned it over just eight times. West Virginia had nine steals to KU’s three.

“I think they were,” KU senior forward Landen Lucas said when asked if the Mountaineers were focused on stopping national player of the year candidate Mason.

Lucas, who played just 7 minutes in the first half because of foul problems — KU used a 2-3 zone much of the second half partly to combat its foul woes — finished with two points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes.

“Coach mentioned it before the game, that this is a tough game for a point guard. It kind of takes him out of rhythm. You’ve got to switch on the fly and adjust your mind-set. They made it hard on him tonight,” Lucas said of Mason, whose dad and some other relatives made the five-hour drive from Petersburg, Va., to attend the game.

“We have high expectations for him. We think he’s the best player in the country. We want him in those situations to be able to do other things to help the team out. I know he knows he can learn from this game and knows if it happens in the (NCAA) Tournament and a team tries to do that, we’ve got to try to find a different way to win the game.”

The Jayhawks may have felt they didn’t do enough to help Mason.

Freshman Josh Jackson scored a team-leading 22 points (he was just 4 of 8 from the line on a night KU hit 6 of 15 free throws to West Virginia’s 19 of 23), while Devonté Graham had 17 points, three assists and four turnovers.

“It’s hard to play here 40 minutes when they are pressing you the whole game,” junior guard Svi Mykhailiuk said after scoring six points on 2-of-9 shooting (2 of 8 from three). Mykhailiuk had seven assists and one turnover.

“I don’t think anyone played really well. He didn’t turn the ball over,” he added of Mason, who played 39 minutes.

The Jayhawks led by as many as six points the first half (28-22 at 5:30), yet trailed by three at halftime at 38-35. The Jayhawks were down by 10 points in the second half (55-45 at 13:41), yet rallied to take the lead 59-58 on a Mykhailiuk three at 9:48.

West Virginiaimmediately built the lead back to five points (64-59). KU trailed just 64-61 with 7:11 left on a Jackson slam, but West Virginia went on a 6-0 run to go up 70-61 at 4:55.

The Mountaineers built the lead to 74-63 at the final TV timeout, with 3:14 left.

KU was burned all night by 6-foot-8 sophomore Ahmad.

“We didn’t guard him,” Self said, adding, “I thought he was the best player in the game.”

Of the performance of freshman guard Jackson, who had a highlight-reel one-handed slam in the second half and hit 4 threes in 4 tries (7 of 12 shots overall), Self said: “I thought offensively he played pretty well. Defensively, I didn’t think anybody played very well at all. He has to get more than four rebounds in a big-boy game like that, especially when Landen is out of the game.”

Lucas dunked at 3:59 to put the Jayhawks within striking distance at 70-63. But two quick buckets fueled a 15-3 run that buried the Jayhawks. Mason hit a three to conclude the scoring, making KU’s first loss in the league a 16-pointer.

“For us, it’ll help refocus us,” freshman forward Mitch Lightfoot said after blocking a shot and grabbing a rebound in 8 minutes. “We got to be tougher down the stretch. We got to come together as a team. We needed a little bit of a reality check. This is good for us though. We’re going to come back better. I’m sure of that.”

“We got to play our butts off and defend. That’s the biggest thing,” he said.

West Virginia hit 48.3 percent of its shots to KU’s 42.4 percent, including 8 of 20 threes to KU’s 13 of 29. KU was outrebounded, 39-32.

“Like coach said before, it’s not the worst thing if you learn from it,” Lucas said. “You don’t want to lose, but if you do lose you want to take something from it. The worst thing is to take this loss and not get better from it. We got exposed in some areas tonight.”

Kansas will next meet No. 4 Kentucky at 5:15 p.m., Saturday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. The two teams are completing a home-and-home series, which also is part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

The Jayhawks won last year’s meeting 90-84 in overtime on Jan. 30 at Allen Fieldhouse. Wayne Selden scored 33 points, while Mason had 13 and Devonte Graham 11 for KU. Tyler Ulis had 26 points for Kentucky.

“I think it’s good for TV because there’s not one coaching playing Saturday out of the SEC or Big 12 who would say it (SEC/Big 12 Challenge) would say it’s a well scheduled game, at least I don’t think so. I bet Huggs (Bob Huggins, West Virginia coach) feels the same way,” Self said, his first take on Saturday’s battle between No. 2 KU and No. 4 Kentucky.

He did add, “We’re happy to go. We’re excited to go,” further comments on the matchup to wait another day.

No. 18 WEST VIRGINIA 85

No. 2 KANSAS 69

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Percentages: FG .424, FT .400. Three-Point Goals: 13-29, .448 (Jackson 4-4, Graham 3-7, Mason 3-7, Mykhailiuk 2-8, Vick 1-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 2 (Bragg, Lightfoot). Turnovers: 13 (Graham 4, Jackson 3, Mason 3, Bragg, Lucas, Mykhailiuk). Steals: 3 (Mason 2, Vick). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: Jackson.

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Percentages: FG .483, FT .826. Three-Point Goals: 8-20, .400 (Adrian 3-3, Carter 3-7, Miles 1-4, West 1-4, Ahmad 0-1, Phillip 0-1). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Konate 2, Adrian, Macon). Turnovers: 8 (Adrian 2, Macon 2, Carter, Konate, Myers, Watkins). Steals: 9 (Phillip 3, Carter 2, Adrian, Ahmad, Miles, West). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

Half: West Virginia 38-35. Att: 13,694.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Frank Mason held in check as KU falls to West Virginia 85-69."