West Virginia ends Kansas' win streak, hands Jayhawks fourth-straight loss in Morgantown

West Virginia’s energy and intensity were impeccable Tuesday night, just as they have been every time Kansas has come to Morgantown since 2013. (AP)

There’s something about Morgantown; something about West Virginia; something about the Mountaineers’ intensity at home that Kansas just can’t seem to overcome.

Frank Mason, Devonte’ Graham and the Jayhawks dealt with Bob Huggins’ vaunted press Tuesday night, but couldn’t deal with West Virginia, falling to a 85-69 defeat amid the fervor and chaos of the WVU Coliseum.

And they haven’t beaten West Virginia in Morgantown in a while — not since Mason arrived in Lawrence in 2013, when Jeff Withey and Travis Releford led the Jayhawks to a 61-56 win over the Mountaineers.)

West Virginia played with so much energy, so much intensity and so much passion. The Mountaineers turned their full-court pressure up as only they can.

Kansas, especially early on, actually handled that pressure well. Mason, Graham and Josh Jackson often broke the press with ease, and, with West Virginia’s defense scrambling to recover, kicked to open shooters. The Jayhawks hit seven first-half 3-pointers on 16 attempts. They turned the ball over just five times in the opening 20 minutes.

But Press Virginia’s effects extended beyond turnovers. It smothered drivers, altered shots at the rim, and bothered Kansas in its half-court sets just as it bothers most teams over all 94 feet.

West Virginia isn’t known for its two-point field-goal defense — opponents shoot 47.7 percent within 21 feet. It is so vaunted on that side of the ball because it stops opponents from getting shots altogether, not because it makes opponents miss shots at an inordinately high rate. But that’s what it did Tuesday, holding Kansas, one of the nation’s best offensive teams, to 40 percent from inside the arc.

The Mountaineers’ energy also carried over to the offensive end. They moved the ball with pep, their guards attacked relentlessly, and forward Esa Ahmad had the game of his life. He scored every which way within 10 feet of the rim, and finished with a career-high 27 points.

West Virginia also took care of the ball itself, something it didn’t do in a 79-75 road loss to Kansas State over the weekend. In fact, the Mountaineers had lost two straight, and three overall in Big 12 play. In all three losses, they lost the turnover battle, which raised questions about their ability to win without that advantage.

Against Kansas, they answered the more specific question of whether they can win without forcing turnovers by avoiding turnovers of their own. In doing so, West Virginia won the turnover battle, 13-8.

The one player West Virginia couldn’t handle was Josh Jackson. The Jayhawk freshman showed off his full array of skills, and showed off the athleticism that has NBA scouts salivating with a monstrous second-half dunk:

Josh Jackson whoa pic.twitter.com/ys7oaEg3l0

— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) January 25, 2017

Jackson also hit all four of his three-point attempts, scored 22 points overall, and added four rebounds and four assists.

But Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles Jr. and Tarik Phillip hounded National Player of the Year candidate Frank Mason. Mason looked disrupted by their on-ball defense, and missed numerous shots around the rim. He finished with 15 points on 16 shots, and had more turnovers (3) than assists (2).

The game was all but sealed by a late second-half sequence that began with Miles Jr. picking Mason’s pocket and concluded emphatically with a Sagaba Konate dunk on the other end. The slam put West Virginia up 74-63. The Mountaineers’ fourth-straight home win over Kansas was a formality from then on, though the final margin is a bit deceiving.

The continuation of one streak was also the end of another. Kansas hadn’t lost since the season’s opening night, when it gave away an overtime thriller to Indiana. It had won 18 in a row, a run that included wins over Duke, Kansas State and Iowa State.

But if there were a time for Kansas’ streak to end, history told us that that time would be Jan. 24 in Morgantown. And history didn’t lie.