West Virginia rallies to beat Bearcats 69-65
West Virginia rallied late in the second half and made just enough plays down the stretch to knock off Cincinnati 69-65 in Morgantown Wednesday night.
The Mountaineers moved to 8-13 overall and 3-5 in the Big 12 Conference, while snapping a two-game losing streak in the process.
Center Jesse Edwards came up big for the Mountaineers as he scored 25 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking 4 shots. He eclipsed 1,000 career points in the process as he looked back into form after missing a chunk of the year.
Forward Quinn Slazinski added 15 points, guard RaeQuan Battle 10 points and guard Kerr Kriisa had 10 points to go along with 7 assists.
Edwards returned to the starting lineup after making his way back to the floor the game before against Oklahoma State and made an impact from the start scoring the first points for the Mountaineers.
But the Bearcats would reel off their next seven to take an early edge.
After back-to-back baskets, the Bearcats would take a timeout leading 7-6 with 15:23 remaining in the first half of the contest. The Mountaineers would take their first lead on Slazinski's second layup of the first half and he would nail a jumper on the next trip down to push the advantage to 10-7 with 13:37 on the clock.
A Noah Farrakhan three-ball put the score at 15-11 as both teams struggled early with turnovers and establishing any sort of momentum. Cincinnati would then use a mini-run of their own to wrestle the lead back and stretch it out to 25-19 with 3:29 remaining.
West Virginia would trim two points off the edge, but the visitors would enter the halftime break with a 27-23 advantage.
Using a 14-5 run, West Virginia would move ahead 37-32 over the first four minutes of the second half as Edwards and Battle got more involved on the offensive end while the Mountaineers were able to get to the foul line.
Cincinnati would tie the game up at 42-all at the 13:09 mark as the two teams came out and played a much cleaner brand of basketball than the first half. From there the lead would seesaw between the two teams over the next couple minutes until an 11-0 run gave the Bearcats a 60-50 edge with 6:30 remaining.
However, the Mountaineers would quickly go on their own 10-0 run to tie the game up at 60-all with just over three minutes left in the game.
Edwards would put West Virginia back out front 62-60 with 1:43 left off an offensive rebound putback for his 24th point of the night. However, the Bearcats would answer on the other end with a three to retake a 63-62 edge.
The back-and-forth would continue on the next trip down as Battle three-ball would push the Mountaineers back out front 65-63 forcing Cincinnati to take a timeout with 47.7 left to play in the game. West Virginia would get a stop and after Kriisa hit one of two free throws the lead was 66-63 with just 27.3 left.
After another stop on defense, Edwards went to the foul line but could only connect on one of two to make the score 67-63. The Mountaineers would get another stop and Slazinski would head to the line and add another free throw to put the edge at 68-63 with only 12.8 remaining to play in the game.
The Bearcats would turn the ball over on the ensuing possession and the Mountaineers would be able to close the game out at home with another Kriisa free throw.
The Mountaineers will remain at home with a matchup set for 6 p.m. Saturday inside the Coliseum against BYU.
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