Turnovers Prove Costly in WVU's Loss to No. 6 Iowa State

The Mountaineers drop the first of a two-game road trip.

AMES, IA - The streak continues... for both teams that is. Iowa State remains perfect at home on the season following a 71-64 win over West Virginia, who is still in search of their first win away from Morgantown.

The Mountaineers couldn't have scripted a better start, jumping out to an 11-2 lead thanks to a trio of threes from Kerr Kriisa, RaeQuan Battle, and Quinn Slazinski, making the crowd at Hilton Coliseum a little lethargic for the first five minutes or so. Once Iowa State settled down and solved West Virginia's 2-3 zone, the momentum flipped. Robert Jones hit a couple of threes while Milan Momcilovic added another to flip the script and give the Cyclones the lead.

Although WVU made 48% of its shots in the first half, they turned it over 11 times which led to 17 points in the other direction. Instead of dictating the uptempo pace like they did in the win over UCF, West Virginia played a little too fast for their liking and took several ill advised shots early in the shot clock. ISU took advantage and held a 10-point advantage at the half.

Similar to the start of the game, the Mountaineers took control of the opening minutes, opening things on a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to five. Not long after the under 16 media timeout, WVU went on an 8-0 run to tie things up at 48. Noah Farrakhan drilled a wide-open three in front of the WVU bench, Battle hit a tough jumper in the lane, and Josiah Harris had the equalizer with a strong finish at the rim and converted the and one attempt at the line. Kobe Johnson knocked down a triple at the nine-minute mark to give West Virginia a 51-50 lead, its first since the 11:49 mark back in the first half.

Turnovers reared its ugly head again as the Mountaineers went four consecutive trips up the court without getting a shot off. The Cyclones scored 14 unanswered as West Virginia's scoring drought lasted roughly six minutes, essentially putting the game out of reach.

WVU will square off with Kansas State on Monday at 7 p.m. EST.

Team + Individual Stats vs. Iowa State

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