On Wednesday evening in Morgantown, West Virginia, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting back-and-forth matchup.
Darian DeVries and the West Virginia Mountaineers welcomed Wes Miller and the Cincinnati Bearcats to WVU Coliseum for the 15th game of the Big 12 regular season. Both teams threw punches throughout the contest, and Cincinnati even held a late lead. It didn’t take long for West Virginia to turn the tides in their favor, however, recording a comeback win over the Bearcats in the final five minutes.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from West Virginia’s 62-59 win over the Bearcats.
An Unlikely Star
While it’s unfair to call Amani Hansberry an unlikely star, the base of the statement reads true when considering a player not named Javon Small was the best on the court.
Amani Hansberry posted a career day against the Bearcats with a dominant double-double. The sophomore forward recorded 17 points, 13 rebounds, and two assists and was the best threat to score for the Mountaineers all day.
The Bearcats made it their mission to keep Javon Small from taking over, which led to Hansberry’s success on the low block. Often matched up with Dan Skillings or Dillon Mitchell, Hansberry was too big and too strong for anyone other than Aziz Bandaogo to hang with.
Tough to Watch
There’s no better way to say it: Cincinnati basketball is tough to watch this year.
The final score of 62-59 doesn’t quite do justice to how stagnant Wes Miller’s squad was on offense, as it took Dan Skillings Jr. hitting back-to-back threes with less than 20 seconds left to cut the lead from nine points to three.
As usual in what has become a frustrating trend, Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas carried the bulk of the load and were left looking elsewhere for help. They received a combined 18 points from Mitchell, Bandaogo, and Skillings until the final minute of regulation, which ballooned to 24.
If this is the end of the bubble talk for Cincinnati, it’s a tough finish for Wes Miller’s 2024-25 squad that was expected to finish among the nation’s best.
Related: Dan Skillings Plans to Leave Cincinnati Following Junior Season
Bubble Talk
With the game in the books, is that the end of bubble talk for both teams?
West Virginia dropped to the bubble in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update for the first time in months, while Cincinnati had firmly planted their flag on the next, next four out.
Cincinnati’s tournament hopes likely crumbled to zero with the loss to West Virginia, commencing a second disappointing season for Bearcats fans and their hopes to return to prominence.
West Virginia, on the other hand, may have pulled its way off the bubble and back comfortably into the field. Only time will tell what lies next for each program.
