WVU basketball: Mountaineers dominate Kansas State at Coliseum

The WVU basketball team continues to become a curious subject in terms of becoming a dominant force in the Big 12.

The Mountaineers have been inconsistent all season and that actually continued on Saturday, even though they defeated Kansas State. The WVU basketball team earned a convincing 88-51 win against KSU at the WVU Coliseum.

There were many concerns about this game in the week leading up to it because of the thoughts that the WVU basketball team wasn’t healthy enough to compete. Several players were out with the flu. Plus, the Mountaineers seemed to be out of whack and not focused.

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Those potential risks were brushed off against the Wildcats. Even though it was a back-and-forth first half, with the Mountaineers only leading by nine points at halftime, there was no question who was in control in the second half.

West Virginia outscored KSU, 50-21, in the second half. After looking flat-out terrible in the second half of some other games this season, the WVU basketball team played perhaps its best half of the year.

For the game, Sagaba Konate was a monster inside with 19 points and nine rebounds. James Bolden, making his first career start, added 13 points and coming off the bench, Teddy Allen scored 12. Jevon Carter had a well-rounded game as he took a bit of a backseat. He scored six points and dished out 11 assists.

The WVU basketball team outrebounded Kansas State, 36-34, and actually had more defensive rebounds than the total count for the Wildcats. Dean Wade and Xavier Sneed were the only two players to reach double figures for KSU scoring 17 and 16 points, respectively.

The Mountaineers held the Wildcats to under 30 percent shooting, while tallying a 54.9 percent shooting percentage. This was exactly the shot in the arm the WVU basketball team needed to move on for the rest of the season with its head held high.

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The chance to put this new-found confidence comes on Monday with a road contest against Trae Young and Oklahoma. The WVU basketball team beat the Sooners, 89-76, earlier in the season.