MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia survived a scoreless drought of almost 6 minutes to start Tuesday’s matchup with Kansas State and another that spanned more than 7 minutes in the second half to stay unbeaten inside Hope Coliseum for the 2025-26 season with a 59-54 victory.
On a night where offense was at a premium (the Wildcats were limited to .915 points per possession, while WVU managed one), the Mountaineers accounted for 15 of the game’s 19 second-chance points, eight of which Treysen Eaglestaff was responsible for over the final 3:17 when the home team overcame a four-point deficit to prevail.
“What they did at the end of that game on the glass was the difference,” Wildcats’ head coach Jerome Tang said.
Despite not scoring 60 points for the fourth time in eight Big 12 games, the Mountaineers improved to 14-7 overall and 5-3 in what is widely considered the toughest conference in the country.
For as instrumental as a 38-31 rebounding advantage was in the overall outcome, so, too, was West Virginia’s ability to prevent the Wildcats (10-11, 1-7) from scoring at anything close to a consistent rate.
While WVU did not score until Chance Moore’s fast break dunk 5:49 into the matchup, its deficit was only 7-2 at that point.
When Honor Huff made a three-pointer at the 5:25 mark of the opening half, it marked the sixth field goal for the Mountaineers, who were even at 16 at that point.
Less than 4 minutes later, Huff had made two more threes and was up to four in the half, and WVU had a 10-point lead before settling for a 28-22 halftime advantage.
While the offense came to life, the Mountaineers kept KSU from attempting a first-half free throw, with all 22 Wildcat points coming off four threes and five two-point field goals on 33 percent shooting as a team.
KSU guard P.J. Haggerty, the Big 12’s leading scorer entering the matchup at 23.4 points per game, was scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting over the first 20 minutes.
Haggerty scored 16 second-half points but finished 6 of 19 from the field.
Perhaps of equal, if not greater importance, was that Haggerty was 2 for 2 on free throws on a night KSU made and attempted four for the game.
Entering the contest, Haggerty was 36 for 53 on free throws in seven Big 12 games, 110 for 152 on the season and had 12 contests with seven or more foul shots attempted.
“Our game plan discipline in that regard was really good,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. “He’s going to make tough shots like he did at the end of the game. You don’t want to put him at the foul line.”
In the second half, even as West Virginia was stuck on 45 points for more than 7 minutes, the Wildcats scored only eight points over that time and turned a four-point deficit into a four-point advantage. KSU’s 47-45 advantage was exactly that for more than 4 minutes.
“A big part of the game is when they had the two-point lead seemingly forever and we weren’t able to score, but they were never able to really extend it,” Hodge said. “In the huddle, we were just talking about we have to play with a level of desperation and urgency defensively and offensively, just relax and make the simple play. Felt like sometimes guys were maybe trying to make too big of an individual play and putting themselves in bad spots.”
While the Wildcats struggled to score, they managed to go until 2:18 remained in the contest without committing a second-half foul. WVU had just three free-throw attempts over the first 38 minutes, but its ability to keep KSU, and in particular Haggerty, away from the charity stripe was pivotal in the Mountaineers surrendering their lowest point total in Big 12 play.
Hodge credited point guard Jasper Floyd for a job well done defensively.
“Jasper did a great job on him. That’s one thing Jasper’s consistently done. He’s done a good job on the other team’s best player,” Hodge said. “He made him inefficient, which that’s what you want to do with a player of his caliber. You’re never going to stop him. The biggest thing for us was not putting him on the foul line. The discipline that our entire team showed, Jasper in particular, at the end of plays to not swipe down and hack down on him, you really have to over-exaggerate your hands, because he’s so good at feeling your body, and if he feels your body, you’re fouling him. We did a good job of making him inefficient and keeping him off the foul line.”
On no sequence was that more important or evident than on Kansas State’s second-to-last offensive possession.
With the Wildcats trailing 57-54, Haggerty had a two-point shot blocked out of bounds. He received the ensuing inbound pass and tried to draw a foul against Floyd as he rose for what would’ve been a tying three from the corner that was well well-defended and missed the mark by a wide margin.
The miss was rebounded by Huff, who made two free throws to wrap up the result.
“At the end of the day, you have to rise up and make a shot,” Tang said. “If they foul you, the refs will call it, but you can’t go looking for a foul.”
Kansas State’s PJ Haggerty missed this three-point attempt with about 10 seconds remaining and the Wildcats trailing by three during their 59-54 loss at West Virginia. pic.twitter.com/wmvtQoeTDa
— Greg Carey (@gcarey938) January 28, 2026
Preventing opponents from living at the line has largely been a strength for the Mountaineers for much of this season.
While WVU has 112 free-throw attempts to 122 for its Big 12 opponents, the stat is largely skewed from last Saturday’s loss at Arizona when the nation’s No. 1 team shot 23 free throws to four for the Mountaineers.
For the season, West Virginia has taken 97 more foul shots than its opponents (421-324).
Campbell and Arizona State mark the only Mountaineer victories when the opponent has attempted more free throws, and WVU is 12-3 this season when finishing with a higher number of foul shots taken.
WVU is allowing an average of 15.4 free-throw attempts to opponents on the season, good for second in the Big 12 behind Iowa State and top 20 nationally.
“They’re such a great defensive team with their schemes and what he does that you have to play with pace and have body and ball movement,” Tang said, “and too many times, we didn’t have that.”