No. 11 West Virginia became the latest college basketball team to earn the right to call itself a giant slayer after slashing their way to a 74-63 win over No. 1 Kansas in Morgantown tonight. Jaysean Paige came off the bench to lead the Mountaineers with 26 points while also chipping in five steals, and Devin Williams added 17 points and 12 rebounds.
The game started out very back-and-forth. Kansas and West Virginia both traded baskets and after the second TV timeout, with just under 12 minutes remaining in the first half, the score was knotted at 14. Once the action started up again, West Virginia’s Nathan Adrian drilled a three-pointer to make the score 17-14 and the Mountaineers never looked back. Kansas never held the lead for the rest of the game.
Which brings the conversation to the crazy part. On paper, West Virginia should not have won this game. The team shot 33 percent for the game and made just 3 of 12 shots from beyond the arc, while Kansas shot just under 42 percent as a unit and made 50 percent of its threes.
However, here’s the rub. Kansas committed an eye-popping 32 fouls and West Virginia made 47 trips to the free-throw line. 14 of Paige’s points came from the charity stripe, as he made 17 trips, and Williams was 9 of 12 from the line compared to 4 of 11 from the field. Speaking of free throws, West Virginia shot 70 percent from the line compared to Kansas, who shot 62 percent from the stripe as a team.
On top of that, the Jayhawks just played undisciplined basketball, committing 22 turnovers and allowing 12 steals by West Virginia. This may sound harsh but Kansas did not deserve to win this game, the way they played tonight.
Needless to say, the Jayhawks are bound for a tumble down the rankings and have a lot of work to do before facing what should be a relatively easy opponent in TCU this weekend, while West Virginia has plenty of momentum at its back as it prepares to visit Buddy Hield and No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
