The #1/#2 Kansas Jayhawks escape Morgantown with a 61 – 56 victory over the Mountaineers Monday night.
It seemed like the Jayhawks would run away with the game early as they would build a 15 point lead midway through the half, but an aggressive Mountaineer defense allowed them to stick in it. The offense struggled for most of the half and finally woke up thanks, in part, to Aaric Murray, who led all scorers with 17 points. He would help West Virginia make a run to cut it to 8 at the half.
The Mountaineers would start the second half hot, cutting the lead to 2 on multiple occasions, but were unable to get over the top. Kansas would push the lead back to 9 with a little under 5 minutes left in the game but West Virginia would answer one more time to bring the game to within 4. The Jayhawks would then take the game to the foul line where they almost give it away, but the Mountaineer offense would once again go cold and Kansas would walk away with the victory.
Foul trouble really killed the Mountaineer big men late in the contest as Kilicli, Rutledge, Murray, and Noreen spent crucial time on the bench. The poor play of Eron Harris was also a huge factor in this game as he only 2 points and 2 steals in the game.
Head Coach, Bob Huggins will again have to go back to the drawing board, but this time hustle was not a reason; “For the most part, we competed for the whole game….Finally”, said the coach but in the end, A loss is a loss. “I don’t lose very well, I hate it. Particularly hate it because I didn’t know this [Performance of team so far in the season] would happen“
The Mountaineers will look to turn things around on Saturday, at Texas Tech.
Worth Noting
— Aaric Murray, who some say would jump to the NBA after one year in Morgantown, said he may come back for another year; “I don’t want to leave like this, I can’t leave like this. I want to win a national championship … I’m in no rush.”
