Amani Hansberry scored 17 points and grabbed career-high 13 rebounds to help West Virginia rally past Cincinnati 62-59 on Wednesday in Morgantown, W.Va., a critical victory for the Mountaineers’ at-large NCAA Tournament hopes.
In a battle of the 44th and 45th teams in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, Hansberry notched the second double-double of his college career. The sophomore scored seven of his points during a 17-3 run over a six-minute span of the second half that helped the higher-ranked Mountaineers (16-10, 7-8 Big 12) snap a two-game skid.
Cincinnati (15-11, 5-10) trailed 62-53 with 34 seconds remaining, but Dan Skillings Jr. sank a pair of 3-pointers just three seconds apart to make it a one-score game.
After calling their final two timeouts, the Mountaineers still failed to get the ball inbounds, giving the Bearcats a chance to tie. However, Tyler Betsey’s 3-point attempt hit the front iron, and Cincinnati lost its second straight and saw its record in Quad 1 games go to 1-9.
West Virginia’s Javon Small finished with 16 points, including 10 in the first half. Jonathan Powell contributed 12 points and nine rebounds.
Jizzle James, who scored at least 24 points in each of the previous three games, led Cincinnati with 13 on Wednesday. He shot 6-for-20 from the floor and battled foul trouble. Day Day Thomas added 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
West Virginia made 12 of 14 free throws, while Cincinnati sank just two of its seven foul shots.
Cincinnati played without Simas Lukosius. The senior guard, the team’s second-leading scorer (11.4 ppg), sustained a shoulder injury during the team’s loss at then-No. 10 Iowa State on Saturday, the Bearcat Journal reported.
West Virginia led 25-16 just past the midpoint of the first half before Thomas sank a jumper and a 3-pointer and teammate Dan Skillings Jr. followed with a layup to cut the gap to two points.
The Bearcats’ Dillon Mitchell sank a last-second layup off an inbound lob to cut the halftime deficit to 29-27.
Cincinnati’s first-half rally came as James, the team’s leading scorer, sat for the final 7:50 after picking up his second foul.
The Bearcats took a 31-29 lead less than 90 seconds into the half second after a James jumper. The lead went back and forth until Mitchell’s jumper gave Cincinnati a 47-41 lead midway through the half.
That’s when West Virginia went on a decisive run. Small’s free throws with 5:41 left gave the hosts a 48-47 lead. Hansberry and Powell connected on back-to-back treys and Hansberry finished the surge with a layup that made it 58-50 with 1:29 remaining.
–Field Level Media
