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MORGANTOWN - In their first meeting the guards from Iowa State made those playing the same position at West Virginia look like high school players.
Junior Jermaine Haley especially had a bad contest against the Cyclones, missing all three shots he took while dishing out three assists and committing two turnovers in 19 minutes of action in WVU's 93-68 loss.
That would not be the case Wednesday night in the Coliseum as the junior transfer would turn the tables on the guards from ISU, scoring 20 first half points as the Mountaineers took a 54-33 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
The Vancouver, British Columbia native was far from finished as he finished with a game-high 28 points to lead the Mountaineers to a 90-75 victory.
"I shot how many times?" Haley said. "I've never taken 20 shots in a game before and I've never had a coach call time out and draw up a play just for me."
To which veteran head coach Bob Huggins had a simple reply.
"He has better coaches here," Huggins laughed. "He's just playing with more confidence and when you have a guy playing with that confidence then you want to get him the ball as much as you can."
And, that West Virginia (12-18, 4-13 Big 12) did as it avenged its setback at ISU in late January.
"We definitely talked about it," Haley said when asked about WVU's guards being outscored by a 77-10 margin at the Hilton Coliseum. "We've had some bad losses and that was one of them so we talked about getting that first punch in on them (Wednesday) and we did, and you saw what we can do when we do that."
Joining Haley in double figures was freshmen Jordan McCabe (18) and Derek Culver (15) and junior Lamont West, who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Freshman Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Moundsville's Chase Harler finished with seven apiece while South Charleston's Brandon Knapper added three. Cameron's Logan Routt played five minutes but failed to score.
ISU, now 20-10 overall and 9-8 in Big 12 play, also placed four players in double figures led by Lindell Wigginton's 17 - who scored 28 off the bench in their first meeting - while Tyrese Haliburton added 12, Talen Horton-Tucker 11 and Nick Weiler-Babb 10.
WVU closes out the regular season on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers are 0-8 on the road in conference play.
"Win," Huggins said when asked what his team had to do to win on the road. "Win one. It's that simple."