Kansas Jayhawks win eighth game in a row, beat West Virginia Mountaineers 76-62
The Kansas Jayhawks have won eight straight games and are now 3-0 in Big 12 play after taking down the West Virginia Mountaineers 76-62 in Morgantown.
It was a nearly wire-to-wire win for the third-ranked Jayhawks, who claimed the lead on a three pointer by freshman guard Gradey Dick with 17:28 left in the first half and never looked back. That started an early trend for Kansas, which made its first six threes of the contest.
“We’ve started games when we’ve shot it well,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, “I don’t know that we’ve shot it 6-of-6 from three well.”
The Mountaineers hung close for much of the first half, however, with the lead never getting bigger than 12 points and KU’s advantage sitting at seven points going into halftime.
After the break, however, the Jayhawks blew it open.
Kansas shot the ball at nearly the exact same clip in the second half as it did in the first half, 42.3% compared to 41.9%, respectively. Its defense, on the other hand, is what flipped the game’s script. The Jayhawks held the Mountaineers to just 29.6% shooting in the second half and only 11.1% (1-of-9) from three.
KU stretched the lead to 22 points with 6:27 left to play, rendering a late flurry by West Virginia effectively meaningless.
All five Jayhawks starters scored in double figures in Saturday’s win, led by a game-high 16 points by Dick. He went 4-of-6 from three-point range in the victory and made all four of his free throws.
“Did he miss a shot?” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins quipped after the game regarding Dick’s night.
Junior forward Jalen Wilson didn’t have an efficient shooting day, going just 4-of-12 from the field, but he finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds against the Mountaineers for his sixth double-double this year.
Sophomore forward K.J. Adams also racked up 14 points in the win, while senior guard Kevin McCullar had 12 and junior guard Dajuan Harris added 11.
Kansas shot 42.1% for the game overall and 45.8% from three, while West Virginia was held to 35.1% shooting and just 20% from beyond the arc.
“We seemingly miss more two footers than any team in American history,” Huggins said.
With the win, KU kept pace with Kansas State and Iowa State atop the Big 12 standings. West Virginia, meanwhile, has dropped all three of its conference games and has lost its last four against major conference opponents.
Next up for the Jayhawks is a return home to Allen Fieldhouse for a meeting with the Oklahoma Sooners on Tuesday night. That game is slated for a 8:00 p.m. central time tip.