MANHATTAN, Kan. _ Antonio Gordon threw down a dunk and thumped his chest three times. His teammates watching from the Kansas State bench jumped out of their seats and danced like they were at a party.
Behind them, the crowd at Bramlage Coliseum roared louder than any home throng the Wildcats have heard in nearly a calendar year.
Those are the type of scenes K-State basketball fans were hoping to see all season, and they came together in perfect harmony as the K-State basketball team played its best game of the year.
The Wildcats stunningly snapped a four-game losing streak with an impressive 84-68 victory over No. 12 West Virginia Saturday. Few saw this coming, but they sent out a reminder to the rest of the Big 12 Conference that they are still capable of big things.
K-State (8-9, 1-4 Big 12) flexed its muscles against the heavyweight Mountaineers (14-3, 3-2) and looked like the superior team from start to finish. Behind some stingy defense and efficient offense, the Wildcats raced to a 42-25 lead and pulled ahead by 24 early in the second half.
West Virginia refused to let K-State completely runaway with things and battled back to within six at one point, but the Wildcats played with enough composure down the stretch to stretch their advantage back to double digits and secure their most important victory of the season.
Wins like this have been hard to come by since Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade left campus last March. The Wildcats lost all of their high-profile games in nonconference play and then opened up the Big 12 season with four straight losses.
Before Saturday, their best victory of the 2019-20 campaign came at home against middling Tulsa. Now they own a victory over a ranked opponent that many expect to contend for a Big 12 championship.
Cartier Diarra led the way with a career-high 25 points. The junior guard was cool and collected throughout the game and hit what felt like a dagger-3 to give K-State a 79-61 lead in the final minutes. He also six rebounds and four assists.
On this day, he got lots of help. Xavier Sneed played through foul trouble for 16 points and DaJuan Gordon came off the bench to score 15. K-State coach Bruce Weber said the Wildcats might need three players to have special efforts in this game, and that is exactly what he got.
Miles McBride led West Virginia with 11 points.
The Wildcats beat the Mountaineers at their own game. K-State was the better team on defense and played with much more toughness than West Virginia, which are both staples under coach Bob Huggins.
The Wildcats beat the Mountaineers with a full-court press, a stifling approach to half-court defense and a barrage of buckets that haven't been seen in this building for many games.
Weber gave K-State a spark in some of those areas by switching up his starting lineup. Junior point guard David Sloan and junior forward Levi Stockard were both on the court for opening tip, and they helped the Wildcats get off to a hot start.
It's been a trying season for the Wildcats, but it didn't feel that way Saturday.
K-State will try to build off this victory in its next game on Tuesday against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
