MORGANTOWN — The situation at hand was rough at best, hinting at full-blown panic at worst.

And there stood West Virginia’s 7-footer Harlan Obioha. He had a smile on his face, energy in his bones and a plan to make it all better.

“This one was really more about just trying to get back to me being me,” he said.

Which is what Obioha basically did in helping WVU erase an eight-point deficit midway through the second half and leading the Mountaineers to an 86-75 runaway win against No. 22 Kansas on Saturday inside the Hope Coliseum.

Having grown up in the state of Kansas — Hoxie to be exact — and never as much as got a look from his hometown team, yeah, maybe that would be a start to Obioha having some extra pep in his step, as WVU head coach Ross Hodge said after the game.

But, what Obioha was able to pull off in that six-minute stretch was nothing short of astounding.

It began with a reverse lay-up – the type of move Kansas head coach Bill Self never could have seen on film in scouting WVU – and that lay-up turned into an and-one 3-point play that got the Mountaineers (11-5, 2-1 Big 12) going in the right direction.

WVU forward Brennen Lorient, “had told me right before we ran that play to just go up and finish it,” Obioha said. “Don’t think about nothing else. You’re the one who is going to score this one. The confidence these guys build in me everyday, it’s starting to build.”

Then came the offensive rebounds, all of them absolutely critical. Obioha had six of them in all that led to his 10-rebound day. He also added 11 points for his first double-double of the season, but the two offensive boards he grabbed during this stretch led to four points and pretty much pointed to WVU’s third consecutive win over the Jayhawks (11-5, 1-2).

“He played super physical on the glass,” Kansas guard Tre White said. “He’s 300 pounds, so with a player like that, you have to gang rebound.”

Obioha grabbed one miss on an Honor Huff 3-point attempt and turned it into getting to the foul line, where he went one for two.

A couple of possessions later, he took a miss from Lorient and tapped it back out to Jasper Floyd, who nailed a wide-open three that gave the Mountaineers a 64-59 lead with 9:21 left.

It was all part of a 16-0 run that led to WVU erasing a 59-51 deficit with 14:52 left in the game to a 67-59 lead six minutes later.

“The offensive rebounding, obviously,” Self said. “They got 11, and really only two of those came from somebody else other than (Obioha). They missed a shot, he grabbed the offensive rebound and got it out for a three. That wasn’t the game, but that was the biggest play.”

In a game that featured a future top NBA draft pick in Kansas guard Darryn Peterson — he had 23 points on 6 of 17 shooting — Obioha was quite possibly the biggest player, and not because of his 7-foot stature.

“I’ve had a pretty tough stretch of games lately,” he said. “I felt like I let down my team and I let down my brothers. I think I imposed my will early. They have a big (Flory Bidunga) who has had a lot of success in the Big 12 and I think I was just trying to be as physical as I could early.”

Make no mistake, Obioha had plenty of help in this one. Huff finished with 23 points, matching Peterson point-for-point along the way. Huff also added seven rebounds.

Lorient scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, as Kansas took a 43-39 lead at the break.

“That can catch your eye pretty easily,” Self said of Lorient’s scoring.

It was Kansas’ third consecutive loss against WVU, all of them coming against first-year WVU coaches. Former interim coach Josh Eilert began the streak during the 2023-24 season, before giving way to Darian DeVries. All DeVries did last season was lead WVU to its first-ever win inside Allen Fieldhouse.

Now, it was Hodge’s turn. He pulled it off even with his starting point guard — Floyd — getting in early foul trouble and straddled to the bench. Peterson went zonkers during that time, scoring 16 of his 23 points in the first half.

And Kansas appeared to be pulling away in the second half, that was until Obioha and his teammates battled back.

“I felt like we were able to get a little better at game-plan discipline and keeping the ball out of the paint,” Hodge said. “At halftime, they had 30 points in the paint and only finished with 36. We started the game with five turnovers and finished with nine. We did a better job of taking care of the ball and getting quality shots and keeping the ball out of the paint, which is not an easy job against them.”