AMES, Iowa — After getting embarrassed at Florida last weekend, a local newspaper ran a headline calling No. 14 West Virginia “Mess Virginia.”

The Mountaineers cleaned things up Tuesday night to win in one of the toughest gyms in the Big 12.

Jaysean Paige scored 23 points, including a crucial 3 with 1:05 left, and West Virginia beat No. 13 Iowa State 81-76 for its league-leading fourth Big 12 road win.

Devin Williams added 17 points and 18 rebounds for the Mountaineers (18-4, 7-2), who rallied from 15 points down for its third win in four games.

Coach Bob Huggins said that the staff’s move to slip newspapers criticizing the team under the players’ doors this week seemed to fired them up

“They’re very resilient,” Huggins said. “There’s a lot of things we don’t do well. But they do compete.”

Paige shot 10 of 17 from the field, none bigger than the 3 that gave West Virginia a 75-74 lead. The Mountaineers outrebounded the Cyclones 43-26, and Tarik Phillip grabbed his own missed free throw to seal it with 19 seconds left.

“We haven’t really shot it really good all year, so sometimes those shots are going to be open,” Paige said.