No. 3 Kansas takes care of West Virginia men

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Freshman Gradey Dick scored 16 points, Jalen Wilson had 14 points and 14 rebounds and No. 3 Kansas rode a hot start to a 76-62 victory over West Virginia on Saturday night.

Kansas (14-1, 3-0 Big 12) has won eight straight and avoided the nail-biting finishes of its first two conference games.

KJ Adams added 14 points, Kevin McCullar finished with 12 and Dajuan Harris 11 for the Jayhawks.

Tre Mitchell scored 15 points, Erik Stevenson added 12 and Emmitt Matthews had 11 for West Virginia (10-5, 0-3 Big 12), which has lost three straight since making a brief appearance in the AP Top 25 at No. 24 a week ago.

Kansas entered the game making 38% of its 3-pointers but took advantage of open spots in the West Virginia defense early in the game. The Jayhawks made nine of their first 11 field goals, including four 3-pointers in the span of 1 minute, 26 seconds to jump ahead 22-10. Harris hit his first two from long range, giving him nine straight over three games before both he and the Jayhawks cooled off.

The Kansas lead never got below five points after that.

Stevenson, West Virginia’s leading scorer, kept his temper in check Saturday after fouling out of the previous two games and being called for technical fouls in each. But Stevenson missed 12 of his first 13 shots.

West Virginia started the second half missing 13 of its first 15 shots and couldn’t find any rhythm down the stretch.

Dick hit a 3-pointer, fed Zach Clemence for a layup on the Jayhawks’ next possession, then made three free throws after being fouled on a long shot as Kansas extended a seven-point halftime lead to 62-43 with 9:38 remaining.

The Jayhawks have beaten the Mountaineers in nine of their last 10 meetings. They outlasted Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to open the Big 12 season after getting off to slow starts in both games. This time, they asserted their dominance early.

The Mountaineers cut down on turnovers committed compared with their first two Big 12 games but have been held to their lowest point totals of the season in back-to-back games. West Virginia has lost 10 straight to ranked opponents and has four more such games later this month.

West Virginia hosts No. 19 Baylor on Wednesday.