MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Kansas, the first-place team in the Big 12 Conference, took care of business against the league’s last-place team, West Virginia, on Saturday night at WVU Coliseum.
Ochai Agbaji scored 23 points and David McCormack added 19 (with 10 rebounds) as the Jayhawks downed the Mountaineers, 71-58, for a sweep of this year’s regular-season home-and-home between the teams.
KU defeated WVU by 26 points (85-59) on Jan. 15 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Jalen Wilson contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds and Christian Braun nine points and 11 boards for KU (22-4, 11-2), which improved to 4-6 all-time at WVU Coliseum.
West Virginia (14-12, 3-10) was led by Sean McNeil, who had 18 points. Taz Sherman had 16 for WVU.
KU, which led 33-27 at halftime thanks to 10 points from Agbaji (Braun had five points, nine boards and four turnovers), grabbed a 42-30 lead at 17:07 following a 9-0 run led by Agbaji (five points) and McCormack (four).
West Virginia, helped by two 3-pointers by McNeil and a blocked shot on defense by McNeil, put together a 10-0 run and cut the gap to 42-40 at 13:43.
KU led 48-43 after Joseph Yesufu stole an inbounds pass and laid it in at 11:11. It was 48-44 KU when Agbaji raced in for a dunk, and Braun hit a shot giving KU a 52-44 lead at 9:31.
McNeil scored four straight and it was 52-48 KU at 8:41.
McCormack responded with four points and KU led 56-48 at 7:29. KU led 60-48 at 5:11 and 62-50 at 4:38. However a McNeil 3 made it 62-53 at 4:17. Malik Curry hit two free throws to make it 62-55. Agbaji scored to make it 64-55 then McCormack hit a free throw for a 10-point lead at 2:32. KU was able to hold on down the stretch.
The Jayhawks will next meet Kansas State at 8 p.m., Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
West Virginia will meet TCU on Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas.
