MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Kansas caught West Virginia in a rare late lapse at home.
Devon Dotson scored 11 of his 15 points after halftime, Isaiah Moss had seven of his 13 points during a second-half burst and the third-ranked Jayhawks finished the game with a 9-0 run to beat the 14th-ranked Mountaineers 58-49 on Wednesday night.
Kansas (21-3, 10-1 Big 12) won for the ninth straight time and remains a game behind first-place Baylor.
“This was not artistic at all,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “It was a grind-it-out, tough road win that you have sometimes when you’re going through your second round of conference (play). That was a really good road win for us.”
West Virginia (18-6, 6-5) fell flat in the end after leading by as many as nine points in each half and lost at home for the first time this season.
West Virginia has the Big 12’s best defense in terms of field-goal percentage, but it was Kansas that hunkered down on defense when it mattered. Kansas’ Marcus Garrett had four of his five steals over the final seven minutes.
“He just took guys with the game on the line and had three steals in a row on three consecutive possessions,” Self said. “He’s unbelievable defensively. I thought he controlled the game on that end.”
West Virginia is stumbling after rising as high as No. 12 in the AP Top 25 last month. It has lost two straight with another big test coming up Saturday at No. 1 Baylor.
Several turnovers and poor shot choices by West Virginia allowed Kansas to forge ahead for good. The Mountaineers scored just one point and failed to hit a field goal over the final six minutes.
In the key final minutes, Kansas “got the loose balls,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “Every ball that got tipped in the air on a rebound, they got. They beat us to the ball.”
The Jayhawks had lost in five of their previous seven trips to Morgantown. Moss said the Jayhawks knew this one was going to be another tough test.
“We just had to lock in,” Moss said.
It took some time, but Moss and Kansas finally did.
Moss made four free throws and a 3-pointer in the span of 1:10 to put Kansas ahead 54-49 with 4:42 remaining. Dotson hit four free throws in the final 2 minutes to complete the scoring.
“We won the game, but I don’t know if we would have won unless Isaiah was in the game,” Self said. “He really helped us.”
