Basketball is a game of runs and West Virginia kept that in mind when trailing in the second half against a very different Cincinnati team than the one they had beaten earlier this month.
The Mountaineers needed to find a way to come back down by half a dozen in the second half and they were able to do exactly that in the 62-59 win by outscoring the Bearcats down the stretch.
The call from head coach Darian DeVries was to play with more energy and that’s what the team did when it seemed as if a giant opportunity at home might slip through their fingers.
“Just one play at a time and we’ll get back on top,” senior guard Javon Small said.
The Bearcats were able to build a lead in large part because of their improvements on the offensive end but the Mountaineers were able to make some adjustments to get back into the game on defense.
Throw on top of that a much more cohesive offensive effort and it was a recipe for success using ball screens with Small and then playing off of that with Amani Hansberry and Jonathan Powell. Each of those players had a critical role in the comeback for West Virginia with that action.
“Even though you’re down, you’re never supposed to think the game is over until it’s over. It was a tough stretch for us but we’re a team at the end of the day, competitors,” Small said.
West Virginia had just come off back-to-back disappointing losses to BYU and on the road at Baylor where they had opportunities to win at the end of the game. That wouldn’t be the case this time.
“We’ve been down before and proven that we can come back. It may have not always been a W but whenever you’re down, you’ve got to just fight,” Small said.
The Mountaineers pushed their overall record to 16-10 and 7-8 in the Big 12 Conference while getting a season sweep of the Bearcats in the process.
There is still work to be done with five games remaining starting with a road trip to Texas Tech, then at home against TCU, before a road trip to BYU and Utah and then closing the year out at home against UCF.
West Virginia currently is perched at No. 43 in the NET rankings and now is 5-7 in quadrant one contests and 3-3 in quadrant two. At this stage of the year, the Mountaineers don’t have a bad loss as they are a combined 8-0 in quadrant three and four contests and will look to use this as a springboard to close strong.
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