Dismal 2nd half defensively sinks Kansas State men's basketball in 65-43 loss at No. 10 West Virginia

Feb. 28—Shortly before Saturday's game at No. 10 West Virginia, Kansas State lost Nijel Pack.

They didn't lose the game itself until much later.

The Wildcats' best shooter, primary ballhandler, undisputed point guard and team leader all rolled into one, Pack was sidelined by an eye infection. Pack's teammates didn't know he was unavailable until they arrived at WVU Coliseum before tipoff.

K-State gave a spirited effort in the first half, trailing just 26-22. It all unraveled in the final 20 minutes, though, as West Virginia left the visitors in the dust in a 65-43 victory.

K-State head coach Bruce Weber didn't want to hear about how Pack's absence affected the team.

"To be honest, I felt good at halftime," he said. "I thought maybe if we just play a little sharper, make some free throws, now we push them a little bit, put some pressure on them. But we didn't have very good possessions to start the second half."

On their first six possessions of the second half, the Wildcats (7-19, 3-14 Big 12) missed five shots; the other ended in a turnover. By the time K-State made its first field goal of the second half — a putback from freshman forward Davion Bradford — with 17:10 to play, the Mountaineers had extended their lead to nine (33-24). K-State never got closer than seven the rest of the way. A dunk from Kaosi Ezeagu cut the Mountaineers' advantage to 37-30 with 12:35 remaining.

After that, West Virginia outscored the visitors 28-15. During one part of the ending stretch, the Mountaineers reeled off 17 consecutive points.

West head coach Bob Huggins was pleased with his team's performance.

Somewhat.

"We're making progress (defensively)," said Huggins, who had a one-year tenure (2006-07) at K-State before taking over at West Virginia. "We didn't get straight-lined near as much today. We did a much better job with rotations, but we have to learn to rotate to the guy who is going to hurt us the most — not just to the closest guy."

No Wildcat truly "hurt" the Mountaineers offensively. Bradford came closest, scoring a team-high 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and a 3-for-5 effort from the free throw line.

Bradford wasn't all that impressed with his play, deeming it "decent." He said he enjoyed the challenge of squaring off with West Virginia's Derek Culver, an All-Big 12 selection each of the past two seasons.

"Culver is an aggressive player," Bradford said. "He does a lot of things aggressively, offensive and defensively."

Weber praised Bradford's mettle, particularly given the caliber of his competition.

"He's going against a really good, experienced big guy who plays very hard," Weber said. "Davion, he battled the whole way."

In hindsight, Weber said the Wildcats should have thrown the ball to Bradford and Ezeagu more often.

That's where Pack's absence was strikingly conspicuous.

"To run offense and be able to move that ball and get it to the right position where somebody can feed those guys, that's our biggest issue," Weber said. "But there's no doubt when we have points in the paint, it gives us a chance."

K-State had its chances, especially in the first half, when West Virginia (17-6, 10-4) never led by more than nine. The Wildcats were within one point on three separate occasions in the opening 20 minutes. But they never got over the hump, as West Virginia led for the duration.

Weber pointed to one area as the crux of the team's problems: not turning more offensive rebounds into second-chance points.

"We had 10 (offensive rebounds) at halftime and we only had four points," Weber said. "That could have been a difference maker."

Not that the first half was an offensive showcase by either team. The Mountaineers made just 33.3% (9 of 27) of their attempts; the Wildcats were even worse, converting at a 28% (7-for-25) clip.

"It was tough sitting through that first half — as tough for me as it was for everybody else — but that was a wakeup for us," Huggins said. "We need to do a little better job of starting games, and a little better job at times of finishing games."

Yet Mike McGuirl said the Wildcats' energy wasn't there at the outset, either. K-State's lone senior, he blamed lackadaisical preparation as one of the reasons for Saturday's loss.

"In practice, we were missing some juice, some energy. ... We had what we needed to prepare, but we didn't execute the game plan as well, and that starts in practice," said McGuirl, who was the only Wildcat other than Bradford to finish with a double-figure point total (10). "We weren't as locked as we should have been."

After grinding out the first half and heading into the locker room down just four, Weber said he couldn't have been happier — he honestly believed the Wildcats "should have been winning the game" at halftime.

But they began to wear down after fouls started piling up in the second half.

"You get foul trouble, (you get) fatigued and it takes a toll," Weber said. "We had a couple guys ask out, and I just said, 'I can't. I can't get you right now.' I tried to use a couple timeouts to help us."

Crafty Mountaineer guard Sean McNeil took advantage of the Wildcats' tired legs, scoring a game-high 16 points, making four of his nine 3-point attempts.

Weber knows McNeil all too well. He tried to get McNeil in a K-State uniform, after all.

"We watched him, we recruited him and obviously West Virginia was closer to home, so they got him to commit a little earlier and we never got the chance to make a push on him," Weber said. "But his improvement from last year to this year — but even during the year — is astronomical, because he's playing with such confidence. He's got that pure jump shot. He gets up on it. He's even shooting the ball off the dribble now."

The only solace McGuirl took from the loss was that the Wildcats weren't as careless with the ball as they had been in the last meeting with the Mountaineers. Last month, K-State committed 28 turnovers — the most in Weber's nine seasons in Manhattan and the sixth most in a single game in program history — in a 69-47 loss at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats had 18 turnovers Saturday.

That, McGuirl said, gave K-State a chance.

It just didn't capitalize.

"Tonight, shots didn't drop, free throws didn't drop," he said. "We needed to be better. We dropped this one. We lost it."