Score Predictions for West Virginia vs No. 11 Iowa State

The West Virginia Mountaineers (14-9, 3-7) welcome the No. 11 Iowa State Cyclones (16-6, 7-3) Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. and airing on ESPN2.

Schuyler Callihan: West Virginia 73, Iowa State 68

I was a little shocked when I looked up the series history between these two, especially considering how WVU has been these past handful of years. West Virginia has won six of the last seven meetings over the Cyclones and seven straight at home.

This is a completely different team than we saw in early January. They're defending better, taking better care of the ball, making shots, and hitting free throws. The trio of Jimmy Bell Jr., James Okonkwo, and Mohamed Wague will give Iowa State fits, who trots out a much smaller lineup.

West Virginia collects its third win over a top-15 team in the past three weeks.

Christopher Hall: West Virginia 83 Iowa State 82

West Virginia has won four of their last six games while Iowa State has lost four out of the last seven, although they beat Kansas at home on Saturday.

The Cyclones have the best scoring defense in the Big 12 Conference and have a league-best 7.7 average scoring margin. They are led by a trio of guards Jaren Holmes, Gabe Kalscheur, and Caleb Grill, who combine for an average of 37.5 ppg.

West Virginia is coming off its best performance of the season, and it appears they are starting to put a run together. However, the Mountaineers have yet to win consecutive Big 12 games.

Guard Erik Stevenson has had two 30-plus performances in the last two games inside the WVU Coliseum and although I don't expect he will match those outputs, his presence should free up his teammates.

The Mountaineers have the size advantage underneath and with the continues improvement from the bigs, I suspect WVU will control the paint.

West Virginia will slow the Cyclones guards to capture their fourth Big 12 win in a nailbiter, 83-82.

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