TicketsCINCINNATI — Cincinnati rallied from a nine-point, first-half deficit to lead by six midway through the second, but West Virginia weathered the storm and before a 17-3 run and eventual 62-59 decision on Wednesday night.
Down nine with less than 30 seconds left, Dan Skillings Jr. banked a 3-pointer with eight seconds left, then after a steal on the in-bounds pass, hit another to cut the deficit to a shocking 62-59 with four seconds left. After WVU lost the ball out of bounds, Tyler Betsey's game-tying 3-pointer at the top of the key fell just short.
West Virginia was 5-of-20 from the field in the second half through the under-8 media timeout. It snapped through with a contested layup, and after a Cincinnati shot clock violation, the Mountaineers hit a second-chance 3-pointer at 6:06, pulling within 47-46.
Jizzle James' falling-away 3-pointer snapped a 5:25 scoring drought and tied it at 50, but the Mountaineers answered with two in a row for a 56-50 lead (12-3 run) at 2:49.
Josh Reed, playing in his 88th game at Cincinnati, earned his first-career start and scored four of the Bearcats' first six points, including on a midcourt steal and breakaway layup.
Cincinnati pulled within 26-25 after West Virginia, which began 10-of-15 from the field, missed six shots in a row and had a shot clock violation.
Reed's perfect in-bounds lob from the coaches' box to Dillon Mitchell with 1.4 seconds left trimmed UC's halftime deficit to 29-27. The momentum carried into the second half, with Mitchell dunking in transition on UC's first offensive possession to tie it, then James swishing a jumper to give UC its first lead since the opening minutes.
Aziz Bandaogo matched his season-high of 10 rebounds. Skillings, last year's leading scorer, returned to double-digits with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Thomas and James each led with 13, with Mitchell also adding 10.
FROM WES MILLER
"We're frustrated. We've been playing so much better the last couple of weeks. We played well at Iowa State and had some good moments here, including a lead in the latter part of the game. It went sideways on us a little bit in a lot of different ways. We had some opportunities at the free-throw line and didn't convert. Their pressure really impacted us with turnovers in bad situations, and we hadn't turned it over all game. We couldn't get into actions because of that pressure, and we got on our heels and they made some good shots to get that lead late.
"I was real proud of the guys to keep playing. They had a shot to tie it. That was pretty incredible to be in that situation down nine with hardly any time left. We've been playing better, and we had a bad stretch the last six or seven minutes, but we can't let it affect us and have to move forward."
UP NEXT
Cincinnati opens a two-game homestand Saturday against TCU (12 p.m. on ESPN2).
Down nine with less than 30 seconds left, Dan Skillings Jr. banked a 3-pointer with eight seconds left, then after a steal on the in-bounds pass, hit another to cut the deficit to a shocking 62-59 with four seconds left. After WVU lost the ball out of bounds, Tyler Betsey's game-tying 3-pointer at the top of the key fell just short.
West Virginia was 5-of-20 from the field in the second half through the under-8 media timeout. It snapped through with a contested layup, and after a Cincinnati shot clock violation, the Mountaineers hit a second-chance 3-pointer at 6:06, pulling within 47-46.
Jizzle James' falling-away 3-pointer snapped a 5:25 scoring drought and tied it at 50, but the Mountaineers answered with two in a row for a 56-50 lead (12-3 run) at 2:49.
Josh Reed, playing in his 88th game at Cincinnati, earned his first-career start and scored four of the Bearcats' first six points, including on a midcourt steal and breakaway layup.
Cincinnati pulled within 26-25 after West Virginia, which began 10-of-15 from the field, missed six shots in a row and had a shot clock violation.
Reed's perfect in-bounds lob from the coaches' box to Dillon Mitchell with 1.4 seconds left trimmed UC's halftime deficit to 29-27. The momentum carried into the second half, with Mitchell dunking in transition on UC's first offensive possession to tie it, then James swishing a jumper to give UC its first lead since the opening minutes.
Aziz Bandaogo matched his season-high of 10 rebounds. Skillings, last year's leading scorer, returned to double-digits with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Thomas and James each led with 13, with Mitchell also adding 10.
FROM WES MILLER
"We're frustrated. We've been playing so much better the last couple of weeks. We played well at Iowa State and had some good moments here, including a lead in the latter part of the game. It went sideways on us a little bit in a lot of different ways. We had some opportunities at the free-throw line and didn't convert. Their pressure really impacted us with turnovers in bad situations, and we hadn't turned it over all game. We couldn't get into actions because of that pressure, and we got on our heels and they made some good shots to get that lead late.
"I was real proud of the guys to keep playing. They had a shot to tie it. That was pretty incredible to be in that situation down nine with hardly any time left. We've been playing better, and we had a bad stretch the last six or seven minutes, but we can't let it affect us and have to move forward."
UP NEXT
Cincinnati opens a two-game homestand Saturday against TCU (12 p.m. on ESPN2).