West Virginia's Jonathan Powell is in unfamiliar territory.
The true freshman is playing a longer season than he's ever played and he's doing so against the best competition he's ever faced.
Powell has struggled recently. On Saturday against Baylor, he shot 1-for-12 from the field, and heading into Wednesday, he was seven for his last 28 from beyond the arc.
West Virginia seemed dead at times during their win over Cincinnati on Wednesday. The Bearcats had control of the second half until a late run sparked the Mountaineers to victory. That run included a clutch 3-pointer from Powell, who said it was able to bring him and his team back to life.
"It feels good. It really gets you going, get all the blood flowing in your body again. It's a really good feeling," Powell said.
Powell's first triple came as WVU was trying to get back into the game. The Mountaineers trailed by four, and Powell made a three off of an offensive rebound from Amani Hansberry, to cut WVU's deficit to one and force a UC timeout.
The second came in the closing minutes as Hansberry kicked it to Powell in the corner who lined it up and knocked it down as part of a 9-0 WVU run.
"Even if they're not going in, I'm still going to be confident, I'm still going to play with energy, play with life. But, it's just a good rush to have when I finally see one go in," Powell said.
Part of the energy Powell played with showed up in other ways on Wednesday. In addition to his 12 points, Powell had nine rebounds, and the second-highest plus-minus of anyone on the team.
"I think every basketball player has to hit one to want to get it back, but I just let it come. When it comes, it comes," Powell said.
Head coach Darian DeVries also marveled at the freshman's confidence, as Powell scored 10 points in the second half, with eight points coming in the final 6:10 of the game.
"What I loved about it, and we tell him all the time, is just keep shooting. I believe he was 0 for 5 at the time, I'm not positive. So, to have the courage to still say, coach has me, I got the confidence to still shoot this sixth one when it was a huge shot and then he hit another one after that. I thought we needed it at a critical time there and what a big shot by him for a freshman to step up and have the confidence to still do that on a tough shooting night, I thought that said a lot," DeVries said.
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