West Virginia imposed its rebounding will after halftime to offset
another double-digit deficit at home.
Kevin Jones scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and
the No. 8 Mountaineers used a big rebounding advantage to come from
13 points down and beat Cincinnati 74-68 on Saturday.
West Virginia (22-6, 11-5 Big East) can earn a bye in the
first two rounds of the conference tournament with a win over No.
11 Georgetown on Monday night.
The Mountaineers outrebounded Cincinnati 41-30 after the
teams were even at halftime. West Virginia entered the game as the
Big East's top rebounding team, while Cincinnati was first in
rebounding margin.
During practices, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has
instilled a tactic in his players when it comes to corralling
missed shots -- he sends those who don't hustle after them to a
high-speed treadmill for punishment.
"We've got smart guys and they knew that we had to rebound
the ball," Huggins said. "It becomes a part of their DNA. If they
don't rebound in practice, they know that they're on that
treadmill."
Ten of West Virginia's 26 second-half rebounds came on the
offense end.
"They got a lot of the long ones coming off on the offensive
glass," Cincinnati's Yancy Gates said. "At times it seemed like the
whole team was in there."
Cincinnati is the Big East's worst free throw shooting team
but the Bearcats went 13 of 15 from the line, including 9 of 9 in
the second half. That accuracy never transferred to the rest of
Cincinnati's game.
Cincinnati shot 29 percent (9 of 31) from the floor after
halftime. The Bearcats led 46-36 after a pair of baskets by Gates
two minutes into the second half. But the Bearcats went more than
nine minutes without a field goal, allowing West Virginia to take
over.
"When you miss a couple of layups, it's crucial and we did it
at crucial times when we needed a basket," Cincinnati coach Mick
Cronin said. "Jump shots are jump shots, but you have to put the
ball in when you're right by the basket."
Darryl Bryant added 14 points, Devin Ebanks had 12 points and
10 rebounds and Wellington Smith had 10 points for West Virginia.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 points, Lance Stephenson had 14 and
Gates added 10 for Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9), which saw its NCAA
tournament hopes take a hit.
The Bearcats have games remaining against No. 7 Villanova and
at Georgetown to finish the regular season. The conference
tournament follows where Cincinnati has never won a game.
The last time the Bearcats came to town two years ago, it was
West Virginia that had the worst shooting night in school history,
going 20 percent from the floor in a 62-39 loss.
This time, West Virginia had to overcome the latest big
deficit at home. They came from 14 down to beat No. 9 Ohio State on
Jan. 23 and from 12 down to edge Louisville on Jan. 30.
Ebanks capped an 11-0 run with a three-point play to put the
Mountaineers ahead 56-52 with 11:07 remaining, their first lead
since midway through the first half.
Jones' 3-pointer with 6:48 left put the Mountaineers ahead to
stay and his layin with 1:34 left gave West Virginia a 68-62
cushion.
"I didn't stand around in the second half waiting for
something to happen," Jones said. "I tried to be more aggressive
and my teammates were looking for me in good spots and I give all
the credit to them."
Vaughn's 3-pointer with 49 seconds left broke Cincinnati's
field-goal drought and cut the deficit to 69-65, but the Bearcats
got no closer.
Huggins substituted often in the first half trying to find
the right combination. Cincinnati made five 3-pointers in the first
11 minutes and, after West Virginia switched from a zone to
man-to-man defense, Gates hit a layup and a dunk to cap a 9-0 run
and give the Bearcats a 23-16 lead with eight minutes left until
halftime.
Huggins emptied his bench after a Steve Toyloy layup pushed
Cincinnati's lead to 37-24. Leading scorer Da'Sean Butler and Jones
sat out the final three minutes of the half and watched their
teammates come back.
Backup Cam Thoroughman scored five of his career-high seven
points after that and West Virginia pulled to 37-33 a minute before
halftime.
"If we kept the same group in and kept getting beat in
transition, we'd be down 20 at halftime," said Huggins, who beat
his former school for the first time in three tries. "Those guys
came in and played really hard and made some plays."
