Five takeaways from Kansas State’s 81-67 road victory over West Virginia

Kansas State basketball fans are allowed to start dreaming about what the rest of the season holds for the Wildcats.

There’s no such thing as an easy game in the Big 12, but K-State has made things look, well, easy in its first two conference matchups of the year.

The Wildcats pulled away from West Virginia for an 81-67 victory on Tuesday at WVU Coliseum that once again showed their potential moving forward. More importantly, they remained undefeated in league play.

K-State (12-3, 2-0 Big 12) started off the conference season by trouncing UCF 77-52 and then it followed that up by going on the road and defeating West Virginia by double digits.

It’s worth pointing out that West Virginia (5-10) and UCF may be the worst two teams in the Big 12. But K-State took care of business against both of them and now finds itself in an enviable position at the top of the conference standings.

The Wildcats once again looked like a NCAA Tournament team on Tuesday behind a game-high 23 points from Cam Carter. The junior guard put his team on his back in the second half and made one big play after another to make sure the Mountaineers were unable to mount a comeback. He was at his best when he drove at the rim, as he connected on 5 of 8 shots within the arc and also made all 10 of his free-throw attempts.

But he also got help from David N’Guessan (17 points, seven rebounds) and Arthur Kaluma (17 points, three rebounds) on the inside.

Rae’Quan Battle led West Virginia with 21 points.

K-State coach Jerome Tang and the Wildcats will try to continue their conference winning streak when they returns to the court on Saturday at Texas Tech.

Until then, here are some takeaways on the victory over West Virginia:

Cam Carter stepped up big for K-State

The final score might make it look like the Wildcats earned a stress-free victory over the Mountaineers, but there were plenty of times when K-State encountered trouble on Tuesday.

West Virginia led at halftime and stayed within striking distance for much of the second half, until Carter put the game out of reach.

The K-State guard gave West Virginia’s defense all kinds of problems as he scored on dunks, driving layups, 3-pointers and a whole bunch of free throws.

When he wasn’t scoring, he found other ways to help his teammates. Carter also finished with four assists and three rebounds.

This was the best Carter has looked against a power-conference opponent. He demanded the ball in important situations and he responded by playing like a go-to scorer.

Maybe a game like this will help him build confidence as the season continues.

K-State committed too many silly fouls in the first half

The Wildcats made 60% of their shots in the first half and outplayed the Mountaineers in most statistical areas in the opening 20 minutes of this game, but they went into halftime trailing 42-40.

Why?

They couldn’t stop committing silly fouls.

Some will argue that the officiating crew in Morgantown blessed the home team with a friendly whistle, as K-State was called for a plethora of touch fouls that could have easily been ignored in other arenas. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Wildcats fouled WVU shooters four different times while they were attempting 3-pointers or that David N’Guessan got hit with a technical foul for touching Kerr Kriisa with his forearm during a dead ball situation.

Did we mention that all of those fouls happened in the first half? Or that the Mountaineers made 12 of 14 free throws in the opening period?

K-State players flashed looks of disbelief after every call.

Tang was also visibly frustrated on the sideline after all of those calls went against K-State, and he deserved to be. The Wildcats were on the wrong end of five costly fouls in the first half. That’s not good no matter who you blame, the referees or K-State players.

Take away all of those fouls and K-State would have entered halftime with a healthy lead.

Step in the wrong direction for Tylor Perry

K-State point guard Tylor Perry seemed to find his top form over the weekend when he erupted for six 3-pointers and a season-high 25 points during a dominant victory over UCF.

Some hoped he would be able to build off that with another strong effort against West Virginia and then enter the heart of conference play with all kinds of confidence.

Better days may still be on the way, but this was not one of them.

Perry only scored six points against the Mountaineers. Making matters worse, he only connected on one of his six attempts from the field. West Virginia made life difficult on him with a myriad of defensive looks. He struggled from start to finish.

Arthur Kaluma survives foul trouble

It looked like K-State wing Arthur Kaluma was going to be in for a long night when he committed a pair of early fouls and was pulled from the game with foul trouble.

But he didn’t let that stop him from putting up an impressive stat line.

Kaluma went on to play in the first half and then come up with big plays in the second half on his way to 17 points, three rebounds and two assists. Best of all, he finished with only two fouls.

Tang showed trust in Kaluma and that turned out to be a good coaching decision.

David N’Guessan hitting his stride inside

Not long ago, K-State forward David N’Guessan was stuck in a scoring slump that left some wondering how much he could help the Wildcats on offense.

Those days are beginning to feel like a long way away, as he scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds against West Virginia. That performance comes after he put up five points and 14 rebounds against UCF, 12 points and nine rebounds against Chicago State and 13 points and nine rebounds against Wichita State.

In other words, he has played four straight strong games for the Wildcats.