MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two days removed from ending its five-game Big 12 losing streak, West Virginia is now looking to begin a winning streak when it faces Baylor tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
 
The Mountaineers (9-9, 1-5) got off the schneid last Saturday in style by knocking off seventh-ranked Kansas 65-64 on Jermaine Haley's driving basket with 8.5 seconds left.
 
WVU was able to overcome a six-point Jayhawk lead by holding them scoreless for the remaining 2:23 of the game.
 
Haley's team-high 13 points came on a perfect five-of-five shooting, while Beetle Bolden and Derek Culver combined for 23 of West Virginia's 28 points off the bench. Bolden was battling the flu throughout the game and was unable to participate in pregame warmups.
 
The flu kept starting center Logan Routt from playing.
 
Culver continued his outstanding inside play against Kansas by contributing 11 points and seven rebounds and is now averaging 11.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, while Esa Ahmad hit a couple of key second-half 3s and finished with eight points and seven boards.
 
Ahmad shows averages of 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
 
Bolden (12.2 ppg.) and Lamont West (11.0 ppg.) are also averaging double digits for the Mountaineers.
 
Baylor, meanwhile, won its second straight game on Saturday night in Waco against Texas Tech and brings an 11-6 overall record into tonight's game. 
 
Against the eighth-ranked Red Raiders, the Bears (3-2 in Big 12 play) got 19 points from 6-3 freshman guard Jared Butler and 16 from 6-1 point guard Makai Mason, a Yale transfer who leads Baylor in scoring with an average of 14.7 points per game.
 
Mason has scored double figures in a career-best nine straight games heading into tonight.
 
Tristian Clark, a 6-foot-9-inch, 240-pound sophomore forward, was averaging 14.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Iowa State, while King McClure, a 6-3 guard, is averaging 10.8 points and 5.5 boards per game.
 
McClure posted a career-high 29 points recently against Oklahoma State, going seven-of-11 from 3-point range against the Cowboys.
 
With Clark now out, the Bears have gone with a small lineup consisting of 6-7 Mario Kegler and 6-5 Mark Vital at forwards, with McClure, Mason and Butler in the backcourt.
 
Flo Thamba, a 6-10 freshman, Matthew Mayer, 6-9 freshman, and 6-8 sophomore Freddie Gillespie are the three bigs Baylor coach Scott Drew is bringing off the bench now.
 
Baylor's smaller lineup has led to some outstanding 3-point shooting in its last two wins against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech when the Bears have shot 48 percent from behind the arc (26 of 54). 
 
Baylor has also held its own on the glass in its last two games by out-rebounding Oklahoma State by one and Texas Tech by two.
 
Tonight's game will be the 16^th meeting between the two schools with the Bears owning a slight 8-7 edge, although West Virginia has won six out of the last seven meetings including all three games last season.
 
Baylor won the first three times it played in Morgantown before dropping the last three, including last year's 57-54 decision on Jan. 9, 2018.
 
Tonight's game will tip off at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Kevin Connors and Chris Spatola). 
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular app WVU Gameday.