MORGANTOWN — West Virginia was presented with a can’t-lose situation on Tuesday. As a collective group, the Mountaineers walked into a half-empty Bramlage Coliseum and said, “We’ll see about that.”

Kansas State guard Nate Johnson flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to lead the Wildcats to a 65-63 victory.

Johnson’s performance – he also added five steals – was the bottom line, but there were so many other storylines in this game.

The main point was WVU (17-13, 8-9 Big 12) had everything to play for, including trying to stay alive for a bid to the NCAA tournament. That opportunity was coming against a Kansas State team that is 15th in the Big 12 standings, was playing for an interim head coach – K-State coach Jerome Tang was fired on Feb. 15 – and without the Big 12’s second-leading scorer in P.J. Haggerty, who missed the game with an elbow injury.

With seemingly every possible angle pointing in the Mountaineers’ favor, they went out and shot 39% from the floor, 56% (9 of 16) from the foul line and scored 63 points against a K-State defense that allows 81 per game.

“Their physicality and ability to make plays around the rim was so much better than ours,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said on his radio postgame show. “Like I said, not always in life, but sometimes you get what you deserve. We deserved this loss tonight.”

If there was any sliver of hope for WVU to make a late-season run and make a case for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2023, they were dashed in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Kansas State (12-18, 3-14 Big 12), which had lost nine of 10 games entering the matchup, went on an amazing 21-0 run to take what was a 26-23 halftime deficit and turned it into a 48-31 advantage. That lead eventually grew to 19 points, 57-38, with 7:29 remaining in the game.

WVU, like it has so many times this season, fought back to make it a game. The Mountaineers trailed, 61-58, and had the ball in the final minute, but they went 2 for 6 shooting over the final 60 seconds, with the second basket coming at the buzzer on Honor Huff’s 3-pointer that ended up being meaningless.

Huff also had a critical turnover with 19 seconds remaining. With the score still 61-58, Huff attempted to drive to the basket, but either K-State forward Khamari McGriff knocked the ball loose from the side or C.J. Jones did the same from behind and WVU was forced to begin fouling.

While the Mountaineers may still have plenty of positive points on its NCAA resumé, including wins against nationally ranked Kansas and BYU, what will ultimately kill their chances is losses against Baylor, Oklahoma State, Utah and Kansas State, which are the bottom four teams in the Big 12.

“I wouldn’t say this is the most frustrated I’ve been,” Hodge said. “I’m extremely disappointed. I’m disappointed with what was at stake to play for that we got beat to loose balls. Would it have been nice to finish more lay-ups? Of course. Would it be nice to have made a couple more threes? Of course, but when things aren’t happening then you better be doing those other things.

“If your guards are going to shoot 7 of 28, then you better be getting some loose balls and you better be making some tough plays. During that (21-0) stretch, we did not make them.”

For most of the first half, none of WVU starters did much of anything. WVU had 26 points, with 20 of those coming from Chance Moore and D.J. Thomas off the bench.

For the game, WVU’s starting five shot a combined 33% (13 of 39) and Huff – the Mountaineers’ leading scorer – didn’t score a single point until 90 seconds into the second half. That came on a 3-pointer that gave him 100 for the season to become just the third WVU player to reach that pinnacle.

That was about the only good news for the Mountaineers on this night, who dropped their fifth straight road game against the Wildcats.

Without Haggerty, who averages nearly 24 points per game, Kansas State still managed a 20-11 advantage in points off turnovers and went 19 of 25 from the foul line. WVU seemingly had no answer until it changed its defensive pressure to halfcourt traps, which helped them to go on their own 11-0 run to begin to get back into the game.

Yet it wasn’t enough. Hodge was quick to point out the reasons why.

“Our inability to play without fouling and the fact they could get the ball close to the basket,” he said. “We couldn’t grab loose balls. The discipline and the commitment and the urgency to make the plays necessary – not the shots – the plays to find a way to win a game on the road wasn’t there during that stretch.”

Moore finished with 18 points for the Mountaineers, who will host UCF on Friday in a regular-season finale that now has very little suspense or intrigue as to what WVU’s postseason hopes may hold. Brenen Lorient added 14 points for WVU, with 12 of those coming in the second half.