WVU Basketball
WVU Basketball Ends Losing Skid With Win at Cincinnati

WVU basketball got back to its winning ways, defeating Cincinnati 63-50 on the road in a Sunday matinee. West Virginia (14-7, 5-5 Big 12) and Cincinnati (12-9, 2-8) had each lost three straight heading into Sunday’s meeting, but it was the Mountaineers who ended their skid.
WVU had been plagued by slow starts in its three consecutive losses, but on Sunday the Mountaineers came out with good energy and made three of their first six shots. WVU had specifically struggled from range over its last three games but made four of its first six three-pointers against UC. Javon Small also got off to a good start, starting 4-6 from the floor and 3-4 from deep.
A three-pointer by Cincinnati tied the game 11-11 after seven minutes and West Virginia took over from there. WVU went on a 20-5 run over the next eight minutes to build a 15-point lead, 31-16.
Cincinnati fought back briefly to cut the lead to 10, but the Bearcats did not make a field goal over the final four minutes as WVU restored its 15-point lead with Joseph Yesufu’s three-pointer with four seconds left in the first half.
WVU was 12-68 on three-pointers over its last three games, but shot 6-11 in the first half against Cincinnati and led 40-25 at halftime.
West Virginia slowed down a bit at the beginning of the second half, but Cincinnati couldn’t heat up enough to cut into the lead.
After six minutes, the Mountaineers got back in gear and went on a 14-4 run to push their lead all the way to 22, 59-37. Yesufu capped off the run with back-to-back three-pointers.
Cincinnati responded with a 13-2 run that cut WVU’s lead down to 11. That was the Bearcats’ best stretch in the game, but they couldn’t get any closer before time ran out.
Small led all scorers with 19 points and nine assists. Yesufu finished with 16 points off the bench and was a perfect 6-6 from the floor and 4-4 from three. Amani Hansberry scored eight points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
The Mountaineers made nine three-pointers in the game after making just 12 in their last three games combined.
Day Day Thomas paced Cincinnati with 10 points while Dillon Mitchell had six points and 10 rebounds. Cincinnati played poorly on both ends of the floor, shooting just 37% while allowing the Mountaineers to shoot 49%. The Bearcats turned the ball over 14 times, which turned into 14 points for WVU.
Darian DeVries’ WVU basketball team will travel to TCU for its next game Wednesday at 8 p.m.