Three Man Weave: Bearcats Postseason Hopes Take Massive Hit With 62-59 Loss to West Virginia

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats lost a brutal offensive showing from both sides 62-59 at West Virginia on Wednesday night to make every game a must-win scenario for the rest of the season.

Amani Hansberry (17 points, 13 rebounds) drove the Mountaineers bus with a monstrous showing that no one on UC could match.

The loss moves Cincinnati to 12-13 all-time against West Virginia and leaves them needing to win out down the stretch to make the NCAA Tournament or a 4-1 mark with a miracle trip to the Big 12 Championship game at least. Even then, this loss likely doomed another season in the Wes Miller era as Cincinnati searches for its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019.

Cincinnati Likely Wilts Away Season Down Stretch

What a collapse in the final 10 minutes as the Bearcats allowed a 15-3 run at one point to WVU, including a 1-9 mark from the field and just a 2-7 free throw mark from the entire game.

UC is now 1-7 as an underdog this season with almost all of those games coming on the road. They are also now 1-10 against Quad 1 opponents to continue the MASSIVE big-game issues in the Miller era. His team did not execute nearly well enough in Winning Time and it was highlighted by just 24 minutes played from Jizzle James (13 points, 6-20 shooting) due to foul trouble.

He tried to will the offense at points, but bonehead mistakes from players like Dan Skillings Jr. (10 points, seven rebounds) were too much to overcome. He was absolutely dreadful again just like most of conference play. Two prayer threes in the final 10 seconds make his stat line look better, but he killed them down the stretch, marked by one of the worst over-and-backs you'll see watching basketball, right after he gave up a brutal three to completely flip momentum.

UC scored six points in the 9:33 seconds before those prayers from Skillings went in. Six. Points.

Rock Fight in Morgantown

Both teams struggled to get any offense going, especially in the first half when their lead guards hit some snags for different reasons. Javon Small (16 points, four assists) appeared to ding his foot up and messed with it on the bench while WVU went through an extended scoring drought and James got in foul trouble just like Saturday's road matchup against Iowa State.

James played just 10 first-half minutes and saw his 24-plus point scoring streak come crashing down against one of the 20-best defenses in the country this season.

Cincinnati returned to its strong defensive ways as well in a game that looked pretty similar to these team's first meeting, with UC, showing a lot more fight overall than that Feb. 2 meeting. They did a nice job turning WVU over on that end but were far too slow at getting into offense on the other. That whole unit looked as disjointed as it did to start the month and clearly missed the shooting gravity that Simas Lukošius (out with an upper-body injury) provides night to night.

UC shot just 7-23 from deep against the best three-point defense in the country after carrying a three-game streak of 10-plus makes into the contest.

Small, Hansberry Carry Without Help

Small and Hansberry were the only real offensive presences for the Mountaineers on Wednesday. The electric guard handled things on the perimeter once he worked through his shoe/foot issue and Hansberry was efficient enough down low for the Mountaineers offense to stay afloat until the second half. He wrecked on the boards and made some huge passes down the stretch.

WVU didn't get much else from the rest of the rotation, with the other players combing for 29 points on some rough shooting. They only ran out eight players in the rotation amidst a thinning roster down the stretch and that thin lineup was felt in the shooting numbers all game and on the boards in the second half. Save for Hansberry who Cincinnati had no answer for to losing avail.

Small dropped 10 points in the opening frame, but just six in the second half thanks to some nice strategy by Miller to put Josh Reed (four points, fouled out) on him as the premier assignment in the. Cincinnati had to play great defense with Lukošius out of the lineup, but the offense predictably wilted like it has too often this season.

Next up is TCU at home this Saturday at Noon ET on ESPN2.

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