Winners and Losers from Cincinnati's 69-65 loss to West Virginia

Cincinnati's NCAA tournament hopes took a major blow as they suffered their first Quad 3/4 loss of the season.

Author:
Neil Meyer
Feb 1, 2024 7:04 AM EST

In this story:

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats are taking sad country roads back to Cincinnati following their 69-65 loss to West Virginia in a renewed battle of old Big East rivals.

Winners

John Newman III was fantastic in this one, especially on the defensive end. He contained West Virginia's leading scorer RaeQuan Battle to just 10 points on 2-of-6 shooting, with five of those 10 points coming from the foul line. That was a matchup that was built for a guy like John Newman as the 6-foot-5 Battle entered this contest averaging nearly 17 points per game. Battle had struggled over the last week shooting just 3-of-12 for a total of seven points in the Mountaineers' past two games.

Newman was Cincinnati's most efficient offensive player in this contest where he finished with nine points, and six rebounds on a 60% shooting clip (3-5 FG). However, Newman was not able to be on the court for the final two minutes of the contest after getting blown up trying to fight a screen late in the game which left him down on the court for a couple of minutes holding his left hip/abdomen area. Newman was helped back to the locker room but was able to return to the bench before the game ended, with a big bag of ice on the injured spot.

Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller told reporters following the 69-65 loss to West Virginia that there were no current updates on the status of the graduate forward. This was a huge loss for the Bearcats as Battle was able to squeeze free in the final seconds to bury a huge three to regain the Mountaineers' lead.

Losers

Viktor Lakhin had arguably his worst game of the season for the Bearcats where he finished with zero points and three rebounds on 0-of-5 shooting. The Russian big man was making his return after missing the UCF game with an illness. However, you could sense that Lakhin was still fighting his way back.

Opposing big Jesse Edwards outplayed Lakhin in all aspects of the contest as the talented center finished with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds on a 65% clip, (11-of-17 FG). The Bearcats had a chance to potentially tie the game with just under thirty seconds left, but a missed three from Lakhin halted the momentum for the Bearcats, which allowed the Mountaineers to put the game away.

Jamille Reynolds also continues to struggle for the Bearcats, finishing with just four points in ten minutes of action. Reynolds sparked some early momentum in the second half after backing down his man and getting into the paint for an easy layup to give the Bearcats a 44-40 lead. The script then flipped in favor of the Mountaineers, as Reynolds picked up a technical foul following the made basket after appearing to motion towards the West Virginia bench while running down the court following the play.

That technical foul turned into a four-point swing for the Mountaineers in that situation. That is something that just can't happen in a game that close. It allowed the Mountaineers to stick around when the Bearcats could have potentially extended their lead.

The Bearcats front court is what hurt them tonight, as they simply had no answer for a guy like Jesse Edwards as a bully for the Mountaineers this evening.

West Virginia found a way to get to the free-throw line 28 times tonight, converting on 16 of those. Meanwhile, Cincinnati was just 6-of-8 from the foul line. The fundamentals hurt UC in Morgantown.

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