No. 12 Kansas State holds off West Virginia, 26-20

Jake Waters threw for a career-high 400 yards and a touchdown, Tyler Lockett returned a punt for a score and No. 12 Kansas State held on to beat sloppy West Virginia, 26-20, on Thursday night.

Kansas State (8-2, 6-1 Big 12) rebounded from a blowout loss at Texas Christian to move into a first-place tie with the idle Horned Frogs with two weeks left in the regular season. No. 7 Baylor can make it a three-way tie Saturday when it hosts Oklahoma State.

Waters was 22 for 34 passing. Lockett caught 10 passes for 196 yards, and Matthew McCrane kicked four field goals.

The Mountaineers (6-5, 4-4) have lost three straight after winning four in a row. West Virginia committed four turnovers, with two of them occurring inside the Kansas State 30-yard line, and Josh Lambert missed a 40-yard field-goal try.

West Virginia’s Skyler Howard threw two touchdown passes after Clint Trickett left because of what Coach Dana Holgorsen said was a concussion. Trickett didn’t return after throwing his second interception in the third quarter. Trickett has now gone 10 consecutive quarters without a touchdown pass.

North Carolina routs Duke

Marquise Williams threw for two touchdowns and rushed for two more, and North Carolina beat Duke, ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press media poll, 45-20, on Thursday night.

Williams was 18 for 27 for 276 yards with touchdown passes covering three yards to Quinshad Davis and one yard to Mack Hollins. He also had scoring runs of one and 16 yards.

Tim Scott returned an early fumble 10 yards for the tone-setting score. The Tar Heels (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) led, 38-7, in earning bowl eligibility while wrapping up the Coastal Division title for Georgia Tech.

Anthony Boone was 22 for 40 for 262 yards with two touchdowns for the Blue Devils (8-3, 4-3). They needed to win their last two to earn a second straight ACC title-game berth. The Tar Heels scored 21 points off Duke’s three turnovers. Duke managed 378 total yards against a defense that allows an ACC-worst 512 per game.

Etc.

Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday says he broke his leg against USC, not his ankle as was widely reported. Halliday, the nation’s passing leader, said that he broke his tibia and fibula when a USC player fell on his leg early in the Nov. 1 game. He says the break was closer to his ankle than his knee.

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Maryland wide receiver Stefon Diggs was officially ruled out of the Terrapins’ final two regular-season games by Coach Randy Edsall. However, Edsall said that Diggs would be available for Maryland’s bowl next month. Diggs suffered a lacerated kidney against Penn State on Nov. 1 and has not played since.

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Buffalo’s home football game against Kent State has been canceled because of severe winter weather in western New York. It was originally postponed from Wednesday to Friday, but the Mid-American Conference announced Thursday night that the game had been scuttled altogether.