Having dominated the first 8 minutes of the second half, West Virginia was on the verge of prolonging a forgettable season at least one more game Tuesday when it led Cincinnati by 16 points with inside 12 minutes remaining in an opening round game of the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship.
Over the next 4:21 of play, three separate Mountaineers were assessed technical fouls, helping to turn the game in the Bearcats’ favor, and Cincinnati scored 42 points over the final 11:45 to storm back for a 90-85 victory at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
“It came down to discipline and a parade to the free-throw and things we can control,” WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “Six points at the line from technical fouls at critical moments where we had some momentum and it killed it.”
The 11th-seeded Bearcats (19-13) handled the No. 14 Mountaineers (9-23) last weekend during a 92-56 victory at UC. Seventy-two hours later, it was a far different story for the much of the matchup.
West Virginia overcame a slow start for a 38-36 halftime lead. The Mountaineers made 10 of their final 13 field-goal attempts in the opening half and got 12 points from RaeQuan Battle and 11 from Quinn Slazinski to spark a 14 for 27 shooting effort through 20 minutes.
Jesse Edwards finished off an alley oop from Kerr Kriisa for a 38-33 lead, before UC’s Day Day Thomas canned a three-pointer to beat the first-half buzzer.
“We came out with a lot more physicality because obviously that was a big factor last game,” Edwards said. “We changed some things guarding pick and roll defense. Other things bit us today — the game plan worked to a really good extent and we got into a competitive game, but made mistakes and couldn’t finish it out.”
But the Mountaineers picked up where they left off to start the second half, getting six points from Kriisa on a triple and three free throws over the first 39 seconds of the second half.
Edwards’ layup with 16:43 remaining allowed WVU to lead 52-42 — the first time in the game the margin was double figures.
West Virginia continued to excel offensively and utilized treys from Kriisa and Josiah Harris over a 50-second span for a 62-46 lead.
When Kobe Johnson scored 40 seconds later to make it 64-48, the Mountaineers were cruising, but that was about to change.
Johnson was assessed a technical foul that directly led to two Simas Lukosius free throws.
Lukosius made a triple 14 seconds after the foul shots to bring his team to within 11, and Edwards was whistled for a technical foul not long after that helped UC pull to within 66-61 with 9:21 remaining.
Following another Lukosis trey that trimmed the Mountaineers’ lead to 68-64, Battle was assessed a technical foul with 7:24 left, and the next time West Virginia was in possession, the game was tied at 68.
Still, the Mountaineers ran off six straight points on two free throws from Edwards and four points from Harris, including a triple with 4:21 to play that left the Bearcats trailing 80-75.
Down the stretch, it was all Cincinnati and the Bearcats overcame a late five-point deficit on the strength of two Thomas triples in a 32-second span.
West Virginia’s last lead was 84-83 on Edwards’ follow-up basket, but Dan Skillings Jr. countered with a basket in the paint, and after a Battle turnover, Lukosius made two free throws with 1 minute remaining.
Edwards then split two free throws before Thomas iced the game with his seventh trey.
“High level athletes and skilled guys in this league. When people start seeing shots go down, the confidence start rolling and that worked in their favor today,” Eilert said. “More than anything our sense of urgency getting to shooters could’ve been a lot higher. But for the most part our guys responded and accepted the physicality of the game and didn’t back down.”
Both Lukosius and Thomas hit seven threes as the Bearcats made 16 of 38 from long range, including 10 of 19 over the final 20 minutes. Lukosius scored 26 of his game-high 31 points after halftime, while Thomas poured in 29.
Skillings scored 13 and Aziz Bandaogo led all players with 13 rebounds before fouling out.
The Bearcats advance to battle No. 6 Kansas at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Edwards made 7-of-8 shots and led WVU with 17 points. Slazinski followed with 15, while Battle (14) and Kriisa (13) were also in double figures.
West Virginia’s season ends with six straight setbacks and losses in 10 of its last 11 contests.
“I got a quote a couple days ago from Joe Mazzulla. He sent me a page out of a book he’s reading and thought it hit home with me and it said, ‘make friends with the problems in your life,’” Eilert said. “The moment I got the job, it’s been filled with challenges, problems to solve and issues to deal with and it’s been non-stop whether it be internal or external issues. Quite the roller coaster and mine field to navigate. You try to figure out how to attack those issues and figure out solutions. We got to the finish line and it’s certainly not where we want to be from a record standpoint, but everybody grew as humans and individuals. Today it came down to discipline and playing the game the right way.”
