West Virginia looked to break multiple trends on Sunday, including slow starts, poor shooting, and most importantly, three losses in their last three games.
The Mountaineers broke the most important trend of them all, the final result, as they beat Cincinnati 63-50 to help break their three-game losing streak from Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati.
West Virginia (14-7, 5-5 Big 12) was able to have a much better start on Sunday than they had in their previous three games.
The Mountaineers made three of their first six shots from the field, as the third field goal was a 3-pointer from Javon Small to put the Mountaineers in front 9-6 with 14:57 to play in the first.
That was Small’s second 3-pointer of the afternoon at that point, while West Virginia ended the first half making six 3-pointers, after totaling four made threes in each of their last three games.
WVU was also very active on the defensive end, forcing nine turnovers in the first half, eight of those coming off West Virginia steals. The Mountaineers turned that into 10 points, West Virginia led 40-25 at halftime.
West Virginia carried over their positive momentum to start the second half, as they continued to control the game against the Bearcats. Small made another 3-pointer to open the second-half scoring for the Mountaineers, before WVU took a 49-33 lead with 13:03 to play as Small made a pair of free throws.
West Virginia would be able to maintain their lead in large part due to their defense. Halfway through the second half, Cincinnati (12-9, 2-8 Big 12) had more turnovers (12) than made field goals (11), while WVU led 51-35. West Virginia then took their largest lead of the game as Jonathan Powell took a steal the length of the court for a slam, forcing a Cincinnati timeout as the Mountaineers led by 18 with 9:38 to play.
West Virginia continued to excel at slowing the Bearcats down from beyond the arc as well. Cincinnati made three of their first four shots from distance but then would miss nine of their next 10 3-point attempts.
West Virginia was in front by 22 after back-to-back triples from Joe Yesufu, before Cincinnati would make a 6-0 run, forcing a WVU timeout with 6:00 to play and the Mountaineers in front 59-43.
Out of the timeout, West Virginia turned it over on that possession, as Cincinnati responded with a made layup, and WVU’s lead was cut to 14 with 5:13 to play. Both teams would come up empty on offense on the next two possessions before Small found Toby Okani for his ninth assist of the game to break a scoring drought that lasted more than three minutes.
Cincinnati then forced another West Virginia turnover, converting a 3-pointer on the other, and WVU’s 22-point lead quickly turned into an 11-point lead with just about three minutes to play.
West Virginia finished the game shooting 49 percent from the field, going 9-for-18 from beyond the arc. Cincinnati shot 32 percent from the field, going 5-for-16 from three.
WVU forced 14 turnovers leading to 20 points, while the Mountaineers picked up their fifth Quad 1 game of the win.
Small led WVU in scoring with 19 points, but Yesufu scored 16 points, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field. Amani Hansberry added eight points and 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers in the win.
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