MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia concludes its regular season in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Saturday, March 9, when the Mountaineers take on the Cincinnati Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena.
 
Since losing to West Virginia 69-65 in Morgantown on Jan. 31, UC shows wins at Texas Tech, and at home to UCF and Kansas State, and losses to Houston twice, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU and, most recently, at Oklahoma in overtime earlier this week.
 
Cincinnati jumped out to an early 18-5 lead and led for all but just minute of regulation, but the game unraveled in overtime when the Bearcats missed a pair of jumpers with 38 seconds left and the Sooners leading 72-71.
 
Oklahoma won the game at the free throw line where it outshot Cincinnati 28 to nine while getting 23 more attempts than the Bearcats.
 
Jizzle James came off the bench to lead four double-figure Cincinnati scorers with 16 points on seven of 14 shooting. After connecting on 52% of its field goal attempts in the first half, the Bearcats cooled to 39.4% for the game.
 
"We couldn't get stops down the stretch for so many possessions in a row," Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said. "Our foul discipline was a massive factor in that; we also couldn't get the loose ball and that type of thing."
 
West Virginia dropped to 9-21 overall and 4-13 in Big 12 play with Wednesday night's 93-81 loss to TCU on Senior Night at the WVU Coliseum. The Horned Frogs jumped out to an early double-digit lead that swelled to as many as 23 points with 5:29 left in the first half.
 
After that, the Mountaineers could never get the deficit below double digits for the remainder of the game.
 
Center Jesse Edwards could have had one the finest performances in WVU Coliseum history if he could have made more of his free throws. But despite missing 12 of 18 from the line, Edwards managed to score a career-high 36 points on 15 of 19 shooting. He also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.
 
Edwards also played a big role in West Virginia's come-from-behind win over Cincinnati by scoring 25 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. He made 11 of 17 from the floor but struggled from the line connecting on only three of nine, although he did convert a critical free throw late in the game to help seal the victory. For the season, Edwards is converting just 53.1% of his charity attempts.
 
Overall, West Virginia has struggled to stop teams in recent losses to Baylor, Kansas State, Texas Tech and TCU, despite shooting better than 50% from the floor against the Bears, Red Raiders and Horned Frogs.
 
TCU was the fourth time in the last eight games the Mountaineers have surrendered at least 90 points and the 93 given up to the Horned Frogs were the second most this year.
 
West Virginia opponents are now averaging 75.9 points per game – the most since the 2019 squad surrendered 77.4 points per game on the way to a school-record 21 loss season.
 
This year's team matched that loss total against TCU in front of a weeknight crowd of 9,674.
 
"Our defense has been an issue all year long and I feel like people shoot the ball really well against us and I don't think it's a coincidence," Eilert said.
 
Saturday's game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+. Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi begins at 1 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com, and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
 
Cincinnati, at 17-13 overall and 6-11 in Big 12 play, is tied with UCF for 11^th place in the conference standings. Oklahoma State and West Virginia are below them with identical 4-13 records, but the Cowboys own the tiebreaker with their 70-66 win over the Mountaineers in Stillwater back on Jan. 27.
 
The Big 12 Championships at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City begins Tuesday afternoon.