We recap Kansas State's trip to Morgantown to face West Virginia in The Final at K-StateOnline.

Kansas State entered Saturday's game with No. 12 West Virginia winners of two of its last three Big 12 Conference games, including a blowout win over the Mountaineers two weeks ago in Manhattan. And, for about 30 minutes the Wildcats gave WVU mostly all it could want on its home floor before the Mountaineers created separation over the final 10 minutes.

K-State never felt all the way out of it against a team who had beaten Texas and Missouri by an average of 30.5 points a game in Morgantown the last 10 days, but the Cats certainly also never were in position to win late in what was ultimately a 66-57 Mountaineer victory.

K-State scored first on a David Sloan basket, and after falling behind 5-2 it was another Sloan hoop - a 3-point play - that put K-State back up 8-5 with 16:52 left in the opening half. Sloan then dished to Makol Mawien after a forced turnover for an attempted finish inside - on which Mawien was hammered but didn't draw a flagrant foul - with the senior post making one attempt to go up 9-5 on a 7-0 run.

K-State would be called for two flagrant fouls over the remainder of the contest.

That lead was short lived, though, as WVU would quickly respond with five straight points to regain a one-point lead at the 14:23 mark. K-State took it back, however, with a Xavier Sneed steal and lay-in two minutes later, as a bit of a back and forth developed in Morgantown.

At the 10-minute mark the Wildcats held a slim one-point edge (16-15) after Mike McGuirl scored on a goal tend.

A key play may have came when Mawien picked up his second foul with K-State down just one and 8:41 left before halftime. What was just a 17-16 deficit had ballooned into a 25-16 WVU lead with 5:25 left in the first half when Bruce Weber called a timeout to try and stop the bleeding.

K-State, to it's credit, came out of that break to score three straight and at least slow the scoring drought, but WVU answered right back with a long two against K-State's zone to leave the score at 27-19 at the under-four timeout. Levi Stockard and Sloan followed that with back-to-back baskets, though, to make it 27-23, and to Sneed free throws trimmed it to just two.

Ultimately, the Wildcats would go into halftime trailing just 30-27, outscoring WVU 11-5 in the final 5:25 after Weber's timeout.

Neither team could knock in a field goal the first two minutes of the second half, with the only early points coming in the form of two Sneed free throws that sliced the WVU lead to a single point.

A minute later DaJuan Gordon missed two free throws with K-State still down one, and McGuirl would get another chance to put K-State ahead at the foul line with 16:44 to play. The junior nearly air balled his first attempt before missing the second, leaving K-State with four straight misses from the line down a point.

WVU made K-State pay on its next trip, finally, with its first make of the second half, a triple with 16 minutes to play for a four-point edge. Derek Culver then spun inside and scored to make it 35-29 in favor of the Mountaineers, a rapid 5-0 spurt after the Cats' missed opportunity at the foul line.

It took a Cartier Diarra drive and finish to stop the run and make it 35-31 WVU, and it represented the first field goal of the second half for K-State.

Gordon snapped K-State's missed free-throw streak at four, making 2-of-2 to on a trip to make it 37-33 in favor of WVU with 14 minutes to play. A potential dagger, though, came when the Mountaineers tossed in a three on a hectic finish to the shot clock for a seven-point lead the ensuing possession. K-State, undaunted, did answer back with a Mawien hoop inside (40-35) with just more than 12 minutes left.

A painful sequence came when Diarra couldn't connect with Sneed on a wide-open ally-oop that would have made it a three-point game, instead leading to a WVU break and lay-up to regain control and a seven-point margin.

WVU scored immediately out of the under-12 timeout to extend its lead to 44-35, and Sneed would air-ball a three (K-State was 1-of-13 from three at that point; Sneed 0-of-5 himself from deep and 1-of-9 from the floor) on the ensuing offensive trip for the Wildcats. The next trip for K-State was empty, too, with a moving screen call on Mawien, and WVU scored its next time down to grab a commanding 12-point advantage.

Not long after the Cats would find themselves down 14, the biggest deficit of the contest.

K-State scored four straight, a drive by Sloan and jam by Sneed, to get it back to 10 points with 7:30 left. Two Sneed free throws with 5:58 to play trimmed it to eight, but a timely triple from WVU on the next possession took the lead back out to double digits at 54-43.

A made three from Diarra, just the second make from distance for K-State after missing 13 straight, made it an eight-point game with three minutes left, but a long two from WVU with 2:28 to play took the deficit back to 10, and the Wildcats did not put West Virginia in legitimate danger during the final minutes.

Let's break down the Cats' tough road loss with help from Jimmy Goheen and Chris Nelson:

K-State played solid defense most of the game, but poor shooting from three and the inability to turn turnovers into points kept the Cats from the upset road win. K-State and WVU ended up even on twos and from the FT line, but WVU's three more made threes proved to be the difference in the game.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. K-State played the 3 point lottery... and lost: WVU finished 6-of-19 from 3, including 4-of-11 in the second half. Meanwhile, K-State was only 3-of-17, and one of those was a meaningless late make by David Sloan. K-State had to dominate other areas to win with that shooting, and the Cats could not.

2. K-State was actually solid on the boards, and even with the 10% gap in offensive rebounding the Cats only lost 2nd chance points 13-9. I suppose it is a bit of pick your poison, as again K-State needed to be even here to win with the shooting they had from three.

3. Turnovers: K-State held a 10-5 lead on points off turnovers at half time, but the game finished up 14-12 in favor of WVU. The Cats won the TO rate battle but didn't take advantage, especially early in the second half when WVU really struggled to take care of the ball. However, K-State missed a pair of shots at the rim and four straight FTs during that stretch before WVU responded.

The Big Three: The best efficiency was Mawien's 0.83, as Diarra finished at 0.76 and Sneed a paltry 0.63. Combined they finished with 24 points, but it took 25 shots to get them. K-State simply can't have all three of those guys down below a 0.90 offensive rating and beat anyone good. Sneed's efficiency was even worse, because he actually passed Diarra's usage today with a 29.5% usage compared to 28.4% for Diarra. Your best players have to be better.

Newcomers: Sloan was really good today with a solid 1.13 offensive rating while leading the scoring and three assists to go with only one turnover. DaJuan Gordon had a solid 1.04 efficiency with seven points on five shots and an impressive rebounding day. Murphy played with energy, but his usage was under 2%, so it's difficult to gauge his impact on the game, especially without many rebounds.

Finally, Mike McGuirl struggled, though it appeared K-State was extra careful after he took a hard foul. Levi Stockard ended with solid numbers for him.

***Traditional statistics provided by West Virginia University***

ANTONIO GORDON

A. Gordon sat out the third, and final, game of his three-game suspension. He is now eligible to return to the Kansas State lineup.

DaJUAN GORDON

D. Gordon's first hoop came on a beautiful move splitting West Virginia's trap for an and-one to tie the game at 5-5 with 17:35 left in the first half. The Chicago native made a very wise play with 9:18 left in the half, laying out to throw a loose-ball rebound off a WVU player out of bounds to regain possession for K-State. That IQ continued to show with 2:28 left in the first half, when Gordon grabbed a long offensive rebound off a Sneed miss and called timeout when immediately pressed in the corner as opposed to risking a lay-up creating turnover. Gordon stayed active throughout, scoring a basket with 3:40 left to get K-State back within single digits.

MONTAVIOUS MURPHY

Murphy again started, and it was impressive to see the freshman power forward used as a real piece of breaking the Mountaineer press early on. Murphy's versatility was further on display, as later he knocked in a 3-pointer to put the Cats up 14-11 at the 12-minute mark of the first half.

In the first game against West Virginia the Mountaineers, and particularly Jordan McCabe, struggled to keep David Sloan in front of them. Sloan again was able to create offense for his team off the bounce. Early in the game he got to the basket for an and-one and was twice able to get into the paint and kick out to shooters in the corner. On the second one DaJuan Gordon did not settle, but instead put the ball on floor and got the basket and the foul.

K-State was tuned into the scouting report defensively for the first eight minutes of the game. WVU likes to set a diagonal screen for Derek Culver near the free throw line, so he can dive to the block. On two separate occasions Gordon and Makol Mawien met Culver in the lane to prevent an easy entry pass and basket. West Virginia also set a cross screen for Culver, and Xavier Sneed helped on the screen until Montavious Murphy could recover. On a fourth possession WVU went to their flex set, which Mawien quickly recognized from the scout. Mawien beat Culver to the spot in the lane; however, when Culver ran into Mawien, a foul was called against K-State.

Two plays defensively where K-State did not play to the scouting report started a West Virginia run in the first half.

Culver is a left-handed player, and even though he has improved his right hand he still very much prefers going to his left. On the first play, Levi Stockard correctly forced Culver to put it on the floor going right, but then let him spin back to his left in the lane. Stockard again failed to take away his left hand in the second half.

On the second play, Mawien came to double Culver on the block. He initially came to Culver’s left side, which is the correct side to double him on, and Murphy correctly jumped to his right. However, Mawien hesitated and slid back towards Culver’s right, which allowed him to easily spin to his left for a basket. To Mawien’s credit, he was pretty solid defensively outside of that play. He played off Oscar Tshiebwe when appropriate to take away entry passes to Culver. And after helping on ball screens, he fought to get back around Tshiebwe for rebounding position.

A play near the end of the first half illustrated the importance of pushing the basketball up the floor with the pass, even if you don’t score off the initial action. Doing so forces the defense to flatten out, meaning they have to retreat towards their own basket. On this particular play, Sloan threw a hit ahead pass to Gordon who was running the wing. Stockard made a good play by immediately going to set a ball screen for Gordon on the wing. This forced WVU’s defenders to retreat into the paint, so when Gordon made a kick out pass to Sneed at the top of the key the WVU defender was forced to over close out on Sneed. Sneed recognized this, put the ball on the floor, and drew a foul.

While Montavious Murphy’s stat line won’t impress anyone, K-State missed him when he was off the court in foul trouble.

Murphy held his own defensively against Culver and is versatile enough to keep guards in front of him. Offensively, he was calm bringing the ball up the court against the press. No doubt K-State could use more scoring out of him, but his demeanor against West Virginia’s pressure was encouraging.

***Subscribe to K-StateOnline by clicking here***

Talk K-State football and basketball in the largest, most active K-State message board community anywhere, The Foundation.