Kansas State couldn’t win the fight Tuesday night against #17 West Virginia at Bramlage Coliseum, falling to the Mountaineers 65-59.

The Wildcats came into the game knowing it would be a battle, or what Coach Bruce Weber called,”a bar room brawl.”

“We told them it was going to be a bar room brawl, bar room fight and that’s just how it was,” said Weber. “That’s just how they play. They play aggressive, they foul every possession. You’ve got to play strong, you’ve got to deal with it, and you’ve got to make free throws when they do foul you.”

K-State shot 36.6 percent from the field, including 20-35 from the free throw line and turned the ball over 25 times.

Kanas State’s leading scorer Marcus Foster struggled to get open shots from beyond the arc finishing just 2-8 from 3 pt. range.  He did lead the Wildcats in scoring with 15 points and was asked how the Wildcats regain their confidence after the loss in time for Saturday’s game against in state rival Kansas Foster replied,”Honestly just forget about it. We’ve got another game and a lot of games left. Even with this loss we’re still in the mix for the Big 12. We’re still in a good place, we’ve just got to keep competing.”

Kansas State was forced to play without Nino Williams for a majority of the game after he went out with a knee injury about half way through the first half.

“He’s been our leading scorer, best player, Senior. Obviously that makes a difference, and then obviously that puts a lot of strain on Malek (Harris). We don’t know, he tweaked his knee. We’ll find out more tomorrow whats really wrong with him. Hopefully it’s not a season ending thing, I don’t know right now,” said Weber.

In Williams absence Harris, a true freshman did step up for the Wildcats adding 6 points and three rebounds.

Kansas State now has the rest of the week to focus on traveling to Lawrence Saturday for their match up with in state rival and 9th ranked Kansas in a 1:00 p.m. tip off. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN. You can also catch that broadcast on the “Talk of JC” 1420 AM starting at noon Saturday.