Winners From Cincinnati's 90-85 Victory Over WVU to Advance in The Big 12 Championships

The Cincinnati Bearcats won consecutive Big 12 conference games for the first time all season.

Author:
Neil Meyer
Mar 12, 2024 9:29 PM EDT

In this story:

Cincinnati Bearcats

KANSAS CITY —This afternoon the Cincinnati men's basketball team improved to 19-13 on the season following their 90-85 comeback victory over West Virginia Tuesday afternoon.

Despite trailing by as much as 16, Cincinnati fought back and string together their first pair of Big 12 victories throughout the 2023-2024 season.

Winners

Simas Lukošius willed the Bearcats to victory on Tuesday afternoon after recording a career-high 31 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Lukošius drove the Bearcats in the second half as the Lithuanian scored 26 second-half points on 6-of-9 shooting. Lukošius was automatic from behind the arch after burying a career-high seven made three-pointers in the Bearcats 90-85 victory.

As we have seen all season long, Lukošius has come up clutch when the Bearcats have needed it all season long. Despite being down by as many as 16 in the second half, Wes Miller called Lukošius's number. It looked like Lukošius was playing with tremendous confidence and that was something Cincinnati would desperately need in order to make a deep run in this week's Big 12 Championship.

"I guess it's easy to say that I love these big-time games," Lukošius told reporters following the victory. "There was no better time to have a game like today. It was the most important game of our season. It was win or go home."

Lukošius's previous career high came back during his freshman season in the Big East tournament against Xavier where he finished with 27 points.

"It is still funny to me that two of my best performances have come in these big tournaments," Lukosius told AllBearcats following the game. "I remember we were down eight with a minute left in that game. Xavier went on to miss all of their free throws and we went to overtime where I scored 12 in that overtime period."

Lukošius's performance on Tuesday will be one that Bearcat fans will remember for quite some time, to say the least. It is not every day, that you see someone put up 26 points in half throughout college basketball, especially while knocking down seven triples along the way.

Cincinnati junior point guard Day-Day Thomas also had a career day for the Bearcats as he finished with a career-high 29 points. Thomas kept the Bearcats in the game late in the first half where he showcased his three-point shooting ability. That was something the talented guard has struggled with at times this season throughout conference play. However, like Lukošius, he also buried a career-high seven made threes in the Bearcats victory.

Bearcats head coach Wes Miller found his team trailing by as much as 16 points in this contest. However, the Bearcats rallied back to defeat the Mountaineers, which is the largest comeback during Miller's tenure at Cincinnati, with the other coming in this very same building back in 2015 against Illinois in the 2021 Hall of Fame Classic. The victory marks the fifth this season where the Bearcats have come back from double digits. Four of those victories came against Big 12 opponents, in the team's inaugural season in the Big 12.

"Heck guys when you're down 16 and come back to win in the conference tournament, it feels great," Miller told reporters following the 90-85 victory. "It felt great. This group has a certain level of character that makes them different and unique. This group fights, stays together, responds to adversity. To see that in a game where it wasn't going our way and be rewarded with a victory. That was the part that meant the most to me,"

Catch Bearcats athletics action on fuboTV! Start your free trial here.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel on all things Bearcats athletics and Bearcat Blitz on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Make sure you bookmark All Bearcats for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more.

You may also like:

Four-Star 2026 LB Cincere Johnson Talks Offer From Cincinnati

Trio of Bearcats Get Big 12 All-Conference Recognition

Three-Star 2025 Edge Rusher Cal Thrush Recaps Past Cincinnati Visits And Offer

Four-Star 2025 Cornerback Jahmari DeLoatch Puts UC in Top Five Schools

Highlights: Cincinnati Gets Revenge Over West Virginia

Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Rolls West Virginia 92-56 on Senior Day

Three-Star 2025 Edge Rusher Cal Thrush Recaps Past Cincinnati Visits And Offer

Look: Jason, Travis Kelce Bringing New Heights Podcast to UC Campus For Live Show