It was an all-around team effort for West Virginia on Sunday as they were able to beat Cincinnati 63-50 to help end the Mountaineers' three-game losing streak.
"That feels a lot better," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said following the win.
The Mountaineers had gotten off to slow starts in each of those three losses, something they were able to avoid on Sunday. WVU took an early 9-6 lead, and after the game was tied at 11-11, the Mountaineers led the rest of the way.
"I thought defensively the guys really came out with a good focus. We had put a lot of stress on starting that first half off better," DeVries said.
That focus would turn into production for West Virginia as they held Cincinnati to 32 percent shooting and 5-for-16 from three. The Mountaineers also forced 14 turnovers leading to 20 points for WVU.
"I thought we were really active. Even when we made mistakes, I thought our connectivity of covering for one another was really good and that led to some opportunities then for our offense to get going and then I thought we made some really nice plays," DeVries said.
Offensively, it was another strong performance from Javon Small who led WVU with 19 points, but he also had a season-high nine assists.
"He had a good night. He said he's played in this gym a few times and he's had some good nights for him. He had another tremendous game, continues to play at a really, really, high level. And nine assists too, let's not forget that," DeVries said.
Elsewhere on offense, it was Joe Yesufu, who scored 16 points on a perfect 6-for-6 mark from the field. He also reached that mark while playing just 15 minutes off the bench.
"He was terrific and really happy for him. Going through some things personally and I thought today for him to come out and play the way he did, we needed that too. We needed that spark and he certainly came off that bench and gave us not only 16 points but just that lift that we so badly needed," DeVries said.
West Virginia picked up their 14th win of the season and their 5th Quad 1 victory as well. DeVries said road victories are hard to come by and he hopes his team keeps this momentum going into Wednesday night against TCU.
"This was a Quad 1 road win. That's why you don't look at records in this league. Every night is going to be an opportunity but also every night is going to be a big challenge. You come on the road at a place like Cincinnati, that has really good metrics, that's a big win for us. That's a big win for anybody. You get those road wins, they're like gold. We'll take this one and get ready to fly to Texas and try to do it again," DeVries said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
