A strong start to the second half helped No. 10/13 West Virginia break open a tight contest with Kansas State, as the Mountaineers earned a 65-43 victory in front of a limited capacity crowd of 2,800 fans at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.

West Virginia opened the second half with a 7-0 run, keyed by a jumper from junior Sean McNeil, expanding a narrow 26-22 halftime lead into double digits and forcing a timeout from K-State head coach Bruce Weber with 17:42 to play. McNeil finished with a game-high 16 points, including 4 3-pointers.

Down its starting point guard Nijel Pack, who missed the game due to an eye infection, the Wildcats (7-19, 3-14 Big 12) could never get anything going offensively, as the Mountaineers finally broke it wide open with a 17-0 run midway through the second half to build as much as a 25-point lead.

WHAT’S NEXT

K-State concludes the regular season with a rescheduled home game with Iowa State (2-18, 0-15 Big 12) on Saturday, March 6 at 4 p.m., CT on Big 12 Now. The game was scheduled to be played on January 13 but was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols. The Wildcats won the first meeting, 74-65, in the Big 12 opener on Dec. 15, 2020 in Ames, Iowa.

Voice of the Wildcats Wyatt Thompson hopped on In The Zone for the latest installment of “Wildcat Weekly.”

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