MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One team is going to end its three-game losing streak when West Virginia plays Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Mountaineers have dropped consecutive games to Arizona State, Kansas State and Houston, and the common threads in each of those are slow starts and poor 3-point shooting.
 
West Virginia is mired in a 12-for-67 shooting slump from beyond the arc, which has carried over into other aspects of play. However, coach Darian DeVries was encouraged with how his team responded in the second half of Wednesday night's 63-49 loss to the sixth-ranked Cougars.
 
After trailing 39-19 at halftime, West Virginia outscored Houston 30-24 in the second half, including an 11-0 run that got the Mountaineers back into the game.
 
"That second half was us," he said afterward. "As a coach, you hope we got that back in the second half."
 
Guard Javon Small continues to lead the Big 12 Conference in scoring with an average of 19.1 points per game, a full point better than Iowa State guard Curtis Jones' 18.1 points-per-game average. Cincinnati coach Wes Miller has extensive experience coaching against Small going back to Small's days at East Carolina.
 
And while Small continues to see double- and triple-teams, which have bogged down West Virginia's offense, the Mountaineers might have finally cracked the code in the second half against the Cougars. Forwards Toby Okani and Amani Hansberry were able to get some good looks at the basket against smaller defenders when Houston's bigs either switched to guard Small or came off their man to provide help.
 
With Tucker DeVries sidelined, getting a consistent second and third scorer has been a big challenge for West Virginia in the subsequent 12 games since his injury.
 
Getting points against Cincinnati on Sunday will certainly be a chore.
 
The Bearcats are giving up just 63 points per game, and opponents are shooting only 40.6% overall and 30.6% from 3-point distance. Cincinnati has a formidable rim protector in 7-foot center Aziz Bandaogo, who has blocked a team-best 31 shots.
 
"They are terrific defensively," DeVries said during his weekly United Bank Playbook visit with Tony Caridi posted online earlier today. "They've got great shot blocking at the rim, and they get after the ball a little bit and put a lot of pressure on your ball handlers to make decisions.
 
"They are mostly straight man," he added. "They've done a little bit of zone, but they really take great pride in their man-to-man defense."
 
Cincinnati has been somewhat disappointing this year under Miller, coming off a 22-15 record last season and boasting what many onlookers felt was a top 25-type team.
The Bearcats began the year ranked 20^th in the preseason AP Poll and got to as high as 14^th before losing 68-60 at Villanova on Dec. 3 in the Big 12-Big East Challenge.
 
Since conference play began on Dec. 30, Cincinnati has dropped games to Kansas State, Arizona, Baylor and Kansas before its recent three-game slide against Texas Tech, BYU and Utah.
 
Its two wins were against Colorado and Arizona State.
 
Now 12-8 overall and just 2-7 in Big 12 play, UC is desperate for a league victory after blowing a six-point second half lead at Utah on Tuesday night. According to David Cohen, who covers the Bearcats for the team's official website, Cincinnati did not land until 4:48 a.m. on Wednesday morning during its return trip and took the day off.
 
Against Utah, guard Jizzle James was one off his season high with 18 points, including multiple 3s in a game for the first time in 10 outings. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard is playing better of late, averaging 13.3 points and shooting 45.8% over his last four games. He is also taking better care of the ball after a nine-turnover stretch in his first three Big 12 games.
 
Simas Lukosius, a 6-foot-8 forward, is the team's top scorer at 12.2 points per game. Most of those points come from behind the 3-point arc where he's made a team-best 47 while shooting a very solid 37.6%.
 
Guard Dan Skillings Jr. is a name Mountaineer fans know well and, he's back on the floor after missing six games earlier this season with a knee injury. He only managed four points on one-of-nine shooting against the Utes but is averaging 10.8 points per game and has had good games against West Virginia in the past.

"He can go score," DeVries said of the 6-foot-6 junior from Blackwood, New Jersey. "From a team standpoint, you've got to keep him under control. They have other guys that can score as well, but it's just one of those games where it's your team defense versus their team offense, and you got to hope yours is better."
 
Dillon Mitchell, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, is contributing 10.6 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds per contest. He scored seven and grabbed six boards against Utah.
 
Lukosius, James, Skillings, Bandaogo, Day Day Thomas and Josh Reed were on the floor for last year's 92-56 Senior Day drubbing of West Virginia.
 
Cincinnati also overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to knock WVU out of last year's Big 12 tournament, continuing a rivalry that began during the Big East days and even prior to that when former Mountaineer players Gale Catlett and Bob Huggins were coaching the Bearcats before returning to their alma mater.
 
Despite West Virginia having a new coach and a completely remade roster, Cincinnati will be eager to get after West Virginia as it has in the past.
 
UC holds a 12-11 advantage in the all-time series and has won the last two after WVU claimed five straight from 2010 to 2024.
 
Sunday's game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.
 
"We've got to continue to play at a high level defensively and get out in transition and find some easy opportunities on offense," DeVries noted.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn will tip things off at 1 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.