GAMEDAY Mens Basketball
West Virginia 89, Kansas State 81
By JOHN RABY
AP Sports Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Erik Stevenson scored 27 points, Kedrian Johnson added 23 and West Virginia gave its NCAA Tournament hopes a big boost with an 89-81 victory over No. 11 Kansas State.
Emmitt Matthews added 20 points and Tre Mitchell scored 14 for West Virginia (18-13, 7-11 Big 12), which has won three of four heading into the conference tournament.
Stevenson, Johnson, Matthews, Mitchell and West Virginia's other seniors sang John Denver’s “Country Roads” following a home win for the final time before going into the student section to celebrate.
Before a sellout crowd, West Virginia rallied from 10 points down to take a 39-37 halftime lead and never trailed after that, shooting 58% (15 of 26) from the floor in the second half.
Kansas State (23-8, 11-7) was within 61-57 when Johnson blocked Markquis Nowell’s layup attempt, and Stevenson hit a 3-pointer at the other end of the court. Stevenson hit another 3 less than 2 minutes later for a 69-59 lead with 8:49 remaining.
Kansas State went scoreless over a nearly three-minute stretch and the Mountaineers padded their lead at the free-throw line, going 7 of 8 en route to their largest lead, 84-69, with 2:42 left.
Kansas State saw its four-game winning streak snapped. Nowell and Keyontae Johnson each scored 24 points for the Wildcats and Cam Carter finished with 13.
BIG PICTURE
Kansas State: The Wildcats scored the first eight points of the game but couldn’t keep the momentum going. Despite the loss, Kansas State capped its best regular season since 2018-19, when they went 24-7.
West Virginia: The Mountaineers had a 22-9 advantage at the free-throw line and forced 20 turnovers.
March 4, 2023
| Kansas State | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| K. Johnson | F | 38 | 10-21 | 0-0 | 4-9 | 1-6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 24 |
| N. Tomlin | F | 23 | 2-3 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| D. N'Guessan | F | 22 | 3-3 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| M. Nowell | G | 39 | 7-20 | 4-6 | 6-12 | 1-4 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 24 |
| C. Carter | G | 30 | 5-12 | 2-2 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| T. Greene | 24 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| I. Massoud | 17 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
| A. Iyiola | 6 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| N. Awbrey | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 199 | 30-67 (.448) |
9-12 (.750) |
12-28 (.429) |
11-33 | 18 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 23 | 81 | |
| West Virginia | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| E. Matthews Jr. | F | 40 | 9-11 | 2-2 | 0-1 | 3-6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 20 |
| T. Mitchell | F | 39 | 4-7 | 5-6 | 1-3 | 0-6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| J. Bell Jr. | F | 12 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| K. Johnson | G | 36 | 4-13 | 14-15 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 23 |
| E. Stevenson | G | 34 | 11-22 | 0-0 | 5-14 | 0-4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 27 |
| P. Suemnick | 11 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| J. Toussaint | 10 | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |
| J. Okonkwo | 8 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| K. Johnson | 7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| S. Wilson | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 198 | 30-59 (.508) |
22-25 (.880) |
7-22 (.318) |
7-29 | 13 | 5 | 14 | 16 | 14 | 89 | |
