On Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio, two Big 12 teams clashed in a game where both teams desperately needed to win.
Wes Miller and the Cincinnati Bearcats welcomed Darian DeVries and the West Virginia Mountaineers to Fifth-Third Arena for the tenth game of the Big 12 regular season. Both teams entered the game on three-game losing streaks and clashed in a must-win game. West Virginia jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, breaking their losing streak.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from West Virginia’s 63-50 win over the Bearcats.
No Task Too Small
In West Virginia’s three-game losing streak, Big 12 Player of the Year candidate Javon Small struggled. That narrative flipped in a big way against the Bearcats with Small returning to his All-American-esq form. Small posted a near-double-double with 19 points and nine assists and helped will the Mountaineers to a win.
He was one of two Mountaineer scorers to post a double-digit number on the statsheet as Small combined with senior guard Joseph Yesufu to record 35 of the team’s 63 points.
Six of the eight athletes who were on the court for West Virginia scored a bucket, with the majority of assists coming from the hands of West Virginia’s star guard.
Dark Days In Cincinnati
Since starting the 2024-25 season on the Preseason AP Top 25, things have turned for the worse for Cincinnati. The group kicked off Big 12 play at No. 15 in the AP Poll and were upset out of the gate by Kansas State.
Since then, they’ve lost eight of their last 10 games and continue to struggle in league play. Against West Virginia, Cincinnati added another lackluster performance to the resume, dropping just 50 points. The group shot a collective 31.5% from the field and 31.3% from three. Cincinnati saw just one player reach double-digit scoring, Day Day Thomas, who went 4-14 from the field with 10 points.
They sit near the bottom of the Big 12 in just about every offensive metric and appear to be trending in the wrong direction with every passing game.
The Road Ahead
After an incredible start to conference play with multiple notable upsets, West Virginia found itself in the driver’s seat. They cooled off a bit with three straight losses to Arizona State, Kansas State, and No. 6 Houston.
They went from an NCAA Tournament lock to a team fading fast, and if the group had dropped the game against Cincinnati, their tournament hopes would have been in rough shape. Regardless, DeVries’ group avoided the scenario, advancing to 5-5 in Big 12 Conference play. They hit the road to Ft. Worth next for a contest with TCU on Wednesday, February 5th.
For Cincinnati, it’s time to pack it up. The season has been a complete failure despite some incredible optimism in the offseason. The group has lost four straight games and now attempts to bounce back against two teams fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The group takes on UCF and BYU in the span of three days.
