West Virginia win streak hits 13

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has a play card packed with 75 offensive sets, yet he couldn’t seem to find anything that would work against Kansas State on Monday.

So Huggins told his guys to get the Wildcats to chase them in the hopes of opening up the lane.

Maybe that freelancing should be set No. 76.

Teddy Allen kept driving to the rim and scored 22 points, Lamont West added 19, and the sixthranked Mountaineers — so often the undersized team whenever they step on the floor — beat up pesky Kansas State in the paint in a 77-69 victory that pushed their win streak to 13 games.

“When you can’t make a shot you have to do something,” Huggins said, “and we couldn’t make one.”

The visiting Mountaineers (13-1, 2-0), who haven’t lost since their opener against Texas A&M in Germany, were 4 of 15 from beyond the arc. But they offset that poor perimeter shooting by outrebounding Kansas State (11-3, 1-1) and compiling a massive 40-18 advantage in points in the paint.

“They’re really good at making you shoot over you. ... You got 10 eyes on you all the time,” Huggins said. “We had to get close.”

West Virginia was clinging to a 65-61 lead down the stretch when Allen went to work, slicing down the lane and picking up fouls. He kept knocking down the free throws, scoring eight points in the closing minutes while helping the Mountaineers to their first win on New Year’s Day.

They had lost their previous four games on Jan. 1.

Michigan State is the new No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25.

The Spartans received 43 of 65 first-place votes in the poll released Monday to earn the top spot for the first time since the 2015-16 season. Duke received 21 first-place votes while moving up two spots to No. 2 and No. 3 Villanova received the other.

Michigan State (14-1) had been No. 2 for three weeks and slid into the top spot after previous No. 1 Villanova lost to Butler on Saturday. No. 4 Arizona State and No. 16 TCU also lost Saturday, leaving college basketball with no unbeaten teams. AP