Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –
Jesse Edwards didn't make many free throws tonight, but he made the one that counted. The senior's free throw with 21 seconds left gave West Virginia a four-point lead and enough cushion to defeat Cincinnati 69-65 tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers overcame a double-digit, second-half deficit because it had Edwards back in the lineup.
The Syracuse transfer scored a season-high 25 points, 19 of those coming in the second half, and grabbed 10 rebounds to help the Mountaineers snap a two-game losing streak and continue their strong recent play at the WVU Coliseum. In its last three Big 12 games here, West Virginia has defeated 25
th-ranked Texas, third-ranked Kansas and now Cincinnati, which was 33
rd in this week's NCAA NET rankings.
"It's good to be home, for sure, West Virginia coach
Josh Eilert said in a nod to the 10,349 who paid for tickets on a Wednesday night to support a team that was six games below .500. "You look at the box score, and the fact that they had a 10-point lead with six minutes to go and we showed enough resolve to make plays down the stretch … that's a credit to our guys and the mindset they had tonight."
Tonight, Cincinnati had the Mountaineers dead in the water with 6:29 left when Simas Lukosius' jumper gave the Bearcats a 60-50 lead.
But it took WVU just 3:17 to erase it. After a
Quinn Slazinski free throw, Edwards followed up
RaeQuan Battle's miss with a dunk and then tacked on a layup off a pretty pick-and-roll feed from Slazinski. Edwards rebounded Dan Skillings Jr.'s missed 3 and the ball eventually found its way to Slazinski beyond the top of the key where he got his 3 to go down, reducing UC's lead to 60-58.
West Virginia turned Lukosius' turnover into more points on an Edwards dunk at the other end. Edwards completed the 12-0 run with a layup to give WVU a 62-60 lead with 1:47 left.
Viktor Lakhin's 3 untied it, but Battle answered with a long 3 right in front of WVU's bench with 1:04 left. Missed 3s by Day Day Thomas and Skillings allowed WVU to extend its lead to five on free throws by Kriisa, Edwards and Slazinski, the big one coming from Edwards.
Edwards was 9-of-9 from the floor in the second half and finished the game making 11 of 17. He was only 3 of 9 from the free throw line tonight because the wrist on his shooting hand was heavily bandaged as a result of fracturing it in the loss at Massachusetts six weeks ago.
Edwards got in the game at Oklahoma State last Saturday but scored just 4 points in 16 minutes of action.
"When teams have to focus so much on Jesse's rim runs it's going to open everything up on the floor," Eilert explained. "A lot of times we forced action because we didn't have that threat and now, we have that threat and teams really must focus on that.
"Making 11 of 17 field goal attempts, yeah, I'd say Jesse is back," Eilert added.
West Virginia, now 8-13, 3-5, shot 47.1% from the floor and had a 16 to 6 advantage at the free throw line against the Bearcats. WVU outscored UC 34 to 30 in the paint and 22 to 12 off the Bearcats' 13 turnovers.
Slazinski chipped in with 15, while Kriisa and Battle scored 10 each.
Skillings led Cincinnati with 15 points, while Lukosius scored 13 and Thomas contributed 12, three of those coming from behind the 3-point arc.
The loss drops Cincinnati to 14-7, 3-5 in its inaugural season in the Big 12.
Tonight's win moves West Virginia up a couple of spots in the conference standings in a four-way tie for 10
thplace with UCF, Texas and Cincinnati.
WVU remains at home to take on 22
nd-ranked BYU Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.
"I'm looking forward to bringing BYU into town and we've now got everyone back," Eilert said. "We're 21 games in we're finally whole, so what's stopping us from reaching our potential? Let's treat this as an 11-game season, and let's make the most of it. We've got no quit in us."
Tickets remain for Saturday's game and can be purchased by logging on to
WVUGAME.com.
