West Virginia blows 18-point lead in falling at home to Kansas State

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — West Virginia needed a hero Tuesday and didn’t get it.

No one wanted the cape. No one dared to step up and shoulder the responsibility of being a leader.

“We have to have some leaders,” WVU coach Mike Carey said after the Mountaineers simply stood by and watched an 18-point lead evaporate with seven minutes remaining in a 56-55 loss to Kansas State, in front of 1,455 fans inside the WVU Coliseum. “We were talking (in the locker room) that no one got on anybody. It’s the coaches who gets on them. No player makes any other player accountable. Everything is O.K. It’s not O.K.”

To make a run at the NCAA tournament, now the Mountaineers (14-8, 4-7) need more than just a hero. They may need a miracle.

BOX SCORE

Held to just 30 points through three quarters, Kansas State (11-11, 5-6) scored 26 in the fourth, wiping out a 50-32 deficit with 7:08 remaining along the way.

“Over the years, I’ve been through a lot of basketball games, but I don’t know that I’ve been through a finish like that,” K-State coach Jeff Mittie said. “We’re sitting there down 18 with seven to go. Obviously, I wasn’t pleased with our guard play and how we handled their pressure.

“West Virginia had all of the momentum and had everything going right. All of sudden, we break open with a couple of plays that gets you to thinking maybe something could happen.”

It happened all right.

West Virginia, once ranked as high as No. 17 in the nation, has now lost three straight and seven of its last eight games in what continues to be maybe the most puzzling downward spiral ever seen in Morgantown by one of its basketball teams.

“We just quit playing defense,” WVU forward Kari Niblack said after sitting outside of the locker room staring over the box score of the game in disbelief. “We lost the game, because we quit playing defense.”

Quit playing defense and quit scoring, too. Tynice Martin, who had nine points at the half, scored just one basket in the second half. That one came on a 3-pointer that gave WVU a brief 53-51 lead with 38 seconds left.

In all, the Mountaineers shot 33% from the floor in the second half.

The Wildcats made WVU pay for it, too. They shot nearly 60% in the fourth quarter after being held to just 33% through three quarters.

The winning play came from 6-foot-5 freshman Ayoka Lee, who had herself quite a night with 15 points and 16 rebounds, her 13th double-double of the season.

With 22.6 seconds remaining, Lee scored in the paint and finished off the and-one three-point play with a free throw to give K-State a 54-53 lead.

West Virginia tried to regain the lead after a timeout, but Esmery Martinez’s drive to the basket came up short and Lee came away with the rebound and called a timeout.
Peyton Williams then sank two free throws for a 56-53 lead.

After a West Virginia timeout, K.K. Deans threw a cross-court inbounds pass to Kysre Gondrezick, who had her shot blocked by Christianna Carr. WVU forward Blessing Ejifor picked up the loose ball and put a shot in at the buzzer, but it was only a two-pointer when the Mountaineers needed a three.

“The ball was supposed to be thrown to Kari and I was supposed to come off a pick,” said Gondrezick, who finished with 10 points. “I’m guessing she wasn’t open or K.K. didn’t feel like she was comfortable enough to throw it to her and threw it to me instead. In that moment, it was just a matter of trying to get a shot up.”

It was the least amount of points a team has scored in a win against West Virginia since Northwestern also scored 56 in last season’s WNIT quarterfinals.

A month ago, one would have been considered delirious to put WVU and the WNIT together in the same thought this season.

Not so anymore, as WVU fell into eighth place in the Big 12, ahead of only Kansas and Texas Tech, who have combined for just four conference wins between them.

If the Mountaineers were to miss out on the NCAA tournament, it would be their third consecutive season doing so, the longest drought in Carey’s 19 seasons at WVU.

“That would be disappointing,” Carey said. “Real disappointing.”

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