LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas guard Kevin McCullar flexed his bicep.
The senior had just drove the ball inside the teeth of the West Virginia defense and converted a tough layup.
The crowd inside Allen Fieldhouse stood and roared — the loudest it had all game. The basket put the Jayhawks up seven points with just over two minutes left in the game.
In the moments that mattered, McCullar delivered with clutch plays on both ends.
The No. 3 Kansas men’s basketball team beat West Virginia, 76-74, on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse. Due to Baylor beating Texas earlier in the day, KU (24-5, 12-4 Big 12) took sole possession of first in the Big 12 with the win.
Guard Dajuan Dajuan Harris scored 17 points and McCullar added 16 points for the Jayhawks, who swept the season series with the Mountaineers. In January, Kansas defeated WVU, 76-62 at WVU Coliseum.
Kansas has won six straight conference games.
Erik Stevenson scored 23 points on 9-for-22 shooting for West Virginia (16-13, 5-11 Big 12), which has lost five straight games to the Jayhawks.
WVU had the chance to tie or take the lead down two with 23 seconds left but turned the ball over with one second remaining. Kansas inbounded the ball and the game was over.
Leading up to that sequence, KU freshman Gradey Dick had the ball stolen and converted into a dunk by WVU’s Emmitt Matthews Jr. to cut the Kansas lead to one-point (75-74) with 37.2 seconds left. Kansas struggled to inbound the ball, but finally did to McCullar, who called timeout.
The next possession, Wilson got fouled and converted 1 of 2 free throws to put Kansas up two points. That marked the last score in the game, as the Jayhawks prevailed in a close contest that was separated by two points (35-33) at half and tied at 40-all early in the second.
Next up: Kansas will play Texas Tech on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game…
Harris makes his presence felt early
After a quiet game against TCU on Monday, Harris did a little bit of everything in the first half on Saturday.
The guard had a career-high five steals with a little over six minutes left in the first half. Harris scored 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and dished three assists in the period.
Harris wasn’t hesitant on any of his shots, whether attacking the rim hard or quickly pulling up from three-point land. It was among Harris’ best halves all season.
He also helped KU earn a seven-point advantage in fast break points (7-0) for the first half. Harris got hurt with 1:16 left in the game and missed the finish, but he did end with 17 points, six assists and six steals.
Turnover issues for both teams
The Jayhawks must have set a team record with the number of offensive fouls (five) in the first half.
Turnover issues plagued both teams, but KU, in particular, had some momentum-killing ones.
West Virginia had 21 turnovers compared to Kansas’ 19, but WVU had an five-point advantage in points off turnovers (25-20).
McCullar also took a key charge for the Jayhawks late in the game, as Kansas needed every defensive stop it got to preserve the win.
WVU takes the rebounding edge
Last time the two teams faced, an undersized KU squad had eight more rebounds than the Mountaineers, 43-35. The Jayhawks did a tremendous job of keeping WVU off the boards by team rebounding.
That wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Mountaineers had eight-more rebounds (34-26) than the Jayhawks, including eight-more offensive rebounds (14-6).
West Virginia stuck around in the game due to its offensive rebounding with a six-point lead in second-chance points (11-5).
Every time it felt like the Jayhawks were about to pull away, WVU grabbed a pivotal rebound and shifted the momentum.
