West Virginia Unable to Hold on to Second Half Lead in Big 12 Tournament Opener

Tuesday, March 12

Kansas City, Mo.

3 p.m.

West Virginia University

9-23,4-14Big 12

Cincinnati

19-13,7-11Big 12

West Virginia

Cincinnati

West Virginia Unable to Hold on to Second Half Lead in Big 12 Tournament Opener

March 12, 2024 05:50 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: John Antonik

KANSAS CITY - Simas Lukosius scored 31 points and Day Day Thomas added 29 to lead 11^th-seeded Cincinnati to a 90-85 come-from-behind victory over 14^th-seeded West Virginia in a Big 12 Tournament first round game at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

West Virginia, leading 64-48 with 11:45 remaining on Kobe Johnson's layup, came unglued right after Johnson's basket.

Referee Kip Kissinger assessed a technical foul on Johnson for taunting, one of three Ts in a four-minute span resulted in 12 points – six off free throws by Lukosius and six off baskets on the ensuing possessions.

The others were on Jesse Edwards and RaeQuan Battle - Battle's coming on a replay review.

Those technicals completely wiped out the great work the Mountaineers did up to that point to get their 16-point lead.

West Virginia (9-23) had its last lead on Edwards' putback basket with 1:34 left. Dan Skillings Jr. answered with a driving layup and following a Battle turnover trying to score in the lane, Kerr Kriisa fouled Lukosius leading to two more free throws and a three-point Bearcat lead.

Thomas' corner 3 with 15 seconds left was the dagger.

Edwards, playing his final game for West Virginia after transferring from Syracuse, scored a team-high 17 points to lead five double figure scorers. Senior Quinn Slazinski contributed 15, Battle scored 14, Kriisa 13 and Josiah Harris added 10 coming off the bench.

West Virginia gave up 90 points for the sixth time in its last 10 games, and, despite shooting 55.4% from the floor, lost for the fourth time this year despite making more than half its field goal attempts.

After scoring on 67% of its offensive possessions in last Saturday's 36-point victory over West Virginia in Cincinnati, the Bearcats were effective on 54.5% of its possessions today, including 22 of its 33 second-half possessions.

UC had a 36 to 32 edge in rebounding and converted 16 of its 38 triples, 14 of those coming from Lukosius and Thomas. Those two were a combined 14 of 22 from behind the arc.

Skillings Jr. added 13 for Cincinnati, which boosts its record to 19-13 and keeps its slim NCAA Tournament hopes alive ahead of tomorrow's second-round game against sixth-seeded Kansas at 9:30 p.m. UC came into today's action with an NCAA NET ranking of 41 but is not in Joe Lunardi's ESPN Bracketology projections.

Today's loss was a microcosm of the season for interim coach Josh Eilert, whose emergency hire last summer was required to keep the Mountaineer roster intact.

West Virginia set a school record for losses in a year and now heads into the offseason having to determine which course it plans to take in a difficult Big 12 Conference that will be adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah next year.