WVU falls to Kansas

Top 10 matchup turns after halftime

A strong second half allows No. 3 Kansas to pull away from No. 7 West Virginia.

Christian Braun hit six 3pointers and had 22 points, Jalen Wilson hit four 3s and scored 17, and No. 3 Kansas shrugged off a mid-game malaise before cruising past seventh-ranked West Virginia, 79-65, Tuesday night in Lawrence, Kan.

Sean McNeil made six 3pointers and scored 24 points to lead West Virginia (6-2, 1-1 Big 12), though almost all of his production came in the first half, when the outcome was still hanging in the balance. Miles McBride added 19 points but the bruising duo of Oscar Tschiebwe and Derek Culver was held to a combined 11 points and 12 rebounds.

West Virginia, enjoying its highest ranking in two years, has lost nine of its last 10 against the Jayhawks and has never beaten them in nine tries in Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks (8-1, 2-0) also got 15 points from Marcus Garrett, 11 points and 10 rebounds from Ochai Agbaji and 10 points and 11 boards from David McCormack.

Kansas trailed by a point at halftime before Braun and Wilson heated up in the second half, carrying the Jayhawks to their eighth consecutive victory overall.

Florida

Forward Keyontae Johnson was released from the hospital, 10 days after collapsing during a game and needing emergency medical attention. The school released a statement from his family saying, “We continue to be amazed at the pace of his recovery and look forward to spending Christmas together as a family.” The family added that it will share “any information we think could help others” regarding the cause and extent of Johnson’s illness. Kentucky’s John Calipari is one of many coaches in college basketball who have said they would like to know if Johnson’s collapse was related to his positive COVID19 test months earlier.

Georgetown

Class of 2021 recruit Aminu Mohammed verbally committed to the Hoyas, giving them their first five-star recruit since 2014 and the first for coach Patrick Ewing, who took over the program in 2017. Mohammed moved to the District of Columbia area from Lagos, Nigeria, in 2016, and enrolled in private school.