Next Game: Oklahoma State 1/4/2025 | Noon Jan. 04 (Sat) / Noon Oklahoma State Javon Small’s free throw with 1.8 seconds left lifted West Virginia to a 62-61 upset victory over seventh-ranked Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. It was the Mountaineers’ first-ever triumph in 12 tries at Kansas, and snaps KU’s 33-game winning streak in conference openers. The […]
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Oklahoma State
1/4/2025 | Noon
Jan. 04 (Sat) / Noon
Oklahoma State
Javon Small’s free throw with 1.8 seconds left lifted West Virginia to a 62-61 upset victory over seventh-ranked Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
It was the Mountaineers’ first-ever triumph in 12 tries at Kansas, and snaps KU’s 33-game winning streak in conference openers.
The last time the Jayhawks dropped a league lidlifter was on Jan. 8, 1991, when it lost 88-82 to Oklahoma while the two teams were members of the Big Eight Conference.
“For a couple minutes there, I thought we were going to lose the 12th one,” an elated West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said afterward.
Today’s victory was unlikely in several different ways.
One, West Virginia was without two key starters, guard Tucker DeVries and forward Amani Hansberry, and the team had issues with its charter flight yesterday and did not arrive in Lawrence until early Tuesday morning.
Furthermore, the hotel at which the team was staying in Lawrence lost power briefly this morning, adding more disruptions to the trip.
“I’m incredibly proud of the guys, especially with the circumstances – the injuries and the travel” DeVries said. “Like we always talk about, there are no excuses in our program; we are going to line up and go compete.”
And compete they did!
Despite the obstacles, DeVries’ gritty team came out and held the Jayhawks scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of the game and led by as many as 15 points in the first half.
The advantage swelled to 18 on Jonathan Powell’s 3 and Eduardo Andre’s layup to begin the second half, before Kansas began chipping away.
KU got it to 12 on Dajuan Harris Jr.’s 3 with 14:40 to go. The margin fell to single digits on Flory Bidunga’s layup with 8:09 remaining. He got another one to go down a minute later, and the margin was reduced to two on Zeke Mayo’s two free throws.
Freshman KJ Tenner ended Kansas’ 10-0 run with a jumper, and former Jayhawk Joseph Yesufu followed with a huge 3 with five minutes remaining to get the WVU lead back out to seven.
Mayo and Small exchanged baskets and eventually, the Jayhawks tied the game on Mayo’s conventional three-point play with 15 seconds left.
The game came down to Bidunga fouling Small and Small making the second free throw after missing the first.
The senior guard scored West Virginia’s final seven points and finished with 13 to go with 11 rebounds and six assists.
Andre, a senior center getting his second start of the season, tallied a season-high 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots in 34 minutes of action.
Powell, also making another start today, contributed 11, including 3 of 8 from 3-point range.
Mayo led all scorers with 27, with 13 of those coming from the free throw line.
Kansas fans, upset with an over-and-back violation that was called late in the game, were conveniently overlooking a 21 to 6 free throw disparity that was 21 to 2 before the Jayhawks had to start fouling to regain possession of the basketball.
This was almost reminiscent of a WVU game played here in 2018 when Kansas shot 35 free throws to West Virginia’s 2 in a 77-69 Jayhawks win.
KU shot just 38.8% from the floor and despite a significant size and depth advantage, outrebounded West Virginia by just a 33 to 32 margin.
Points in the paint were even, 28 to 28, and Kansas had an 11 to 8 edge in bench scoring.
West Virginia, which led the entire game, assisted on 18 of its 26 field goals, while Kansas assisted on just 10 of its 19 field goals.
“The first 25 minutes or so the guys did a great job of staying composed and playing within themselves,” DeVries said. “Obviously, from a game-plan perspective, we wanted to slow the game way down just because we didn’t feel like we could run with them in this building, and we wanted to keep the crowd out of it as much as possible.
“The guys played tremendous for a long period of time, and then to be honest, they weathered the storm,” DeVries added. “A lot of stuff is going against you by missing some bunnies, the crowd is starting to get in it, they tie the game back up, and Javon is able to make a veteran play.”
Today’s victory will go down as one of the great road triumphs in school annals, possibly approaching West Virginia’s 77-70 win over fifth-ranked Kentucky in Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 20, 1957.
The late Jerry West, whom West Virginia is honoring this year with a No. 44 patch on its jerseys, was the star player in that game.
The Mountaineers, receiving top 25 votes this week, improve to 10-2 overall and return home to face Oklahoma State inside the WVU Coliseum at noon. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
Good tickets still remain and can be purchased through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
