Kansas vs. West Virginia: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

Down one point with 8.3 seconds left, Juwan Staten went coast to coast for the go-ahead layup that ended up being the difference in West Virginia's 62-61 upset victory over Kansas.   

Troy Machir of Sporting News captured a vine of the play:

ESPN's Dana O'Neil and Jeff Goodman gave their thoughts on the final basket:

Kansas forward Perry Ellis actually had a chance to win it on a final shot but came up short, as described by Seth Davis of CBS Sports:

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports summed up the emotion for the home crowd:

The final bucket was part of Staten's game-high 20 points for the Mountaineers in the win. Jevon Carter was the only other player in double figures for the home team with 13. The big difference was the team's effort on the boards as West Virginia finished with 22 offensive rebounds.

Kansas shot 6-of-11 from three-point range and 49 percent overall, led by Ellis' 19 points and 18 from Frank Mason. However, it was not enough to pull off the road victory as the Jayhawks fell in Morgantown for the second year in a row.

"

That hurt !! My team and I will grow stronger from it I know it ! All I can do is thank god for giving me the opportunity to play this game!

— Perry Ellis (@PElliz) February 17, 2015"

West Virginia seemed prepared to pull away early, scoring the first eight points and pushing the lead to 11 points in the first half. Brad Evans of Yahoo Sports noted Kansas' problems handling the press:

As the action continued, the Mountaineers remained successful thanks to their success on the offensive glass, as Rustin Dodd of The Kansas City Star pointed out:

The home team had eight offensive rebounds before Kansas had any while bringing down 11 in the first half. Kansas was able to claw its way back, but even the good plays weren't great, as argued by Bob Hertzel of TimesWV.com:

Still, the Jayhawks were able to claw their way back to trail by just three points at halftime, 33-30.

Bleacher Report's Joe Tansey predicted a quick turnaround on the scoreboard: 

Kansas started the second half on a 10-0 run to take the lead. The squad made its first five shots of the half and seemingly couldn't miss from the outside.

It appeared as though the road team was set on pulling away, but West Virginia turned up the defensive pressure and created an extended scoring drought to regain the lead:

As the game continued, the Mountaineers hung around until a pair of Jevon Carter three-pointers gave them the lead late and pumped up the crowd:

After some great defensive stops, West Virginia got the go-ahead basket by Staten to earn the important win, as described by Goodman:

Jon Solomon of CBS Sports also adds an interesting nugget:

This win was necessary for West Virginia as it is part of a brutal schedule end to the regular season. The squad will play at Oklahoma State Saturday as part of a stretch of six ranked opponents in the final seven games.

On the other hand, the Jayhawks will have a bit of an easier stretch with upcoming games against TCU and then at Kansas State. Still, there will be plenty of tough matchups remaining as Kansas tries to close out another Big 12 title.  

Kansas coach Bill Self recently explained the positives of playing a difficult conference schedule, via Jesse Newell of The Topeka Capital-Journal:

"

Our league is good for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is because you would think for postseason preparation, there’s not many things or many styles out there that people will throw at us that we haven’t seen. ...There’s been a lot of things that’s happened this year within our league that I think will help all teams moving forward.

"

The two teams will see each other again on March 3 at Allen Fieldhouse.

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