For awhile on Wednesday night, it looked like another chapter in a never-ending story for West Virginia men's basketball.
Another close game with a halftime lead and another opportunity to secure a much-needed win that slowly began to slip from the Mountaineers' grasp at the hands of an opponent late-game rally. This one posed the risk of pushing the program onto the wrong side of the bubble for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
But WVU was able to dig deep and bear down against a rival program in a similar must-win situation in Cincinnati and hold off a second-half rally from the Bearcats -- and despite the Mountaineers sacrificing a two-point halftime lead and trailing by six points with under 10 minutes to play, they rode a resilient effort to re-take the lead and hold onto it, as they walked out of the WVU Coliseum with a 62-59 win.
"It was a tough, hard-fought game by both teams," WVU Head Coach Darian DeVries told the Mountaineer Sports Network following the win. "There was a lot at stake for us tonight and both teams knew that and both teams played like it."
The game was thick with drama and not completely decided until the final few minutes -- WVU (16-10, 7-8) led by nine points with just 10 seconds left in the game, but a pair of Mountaineer turnovers and a pair of Cincinnati (15-11, 5-10) three-point buckets in the waning seconds set up a potential game-tying, last-second shot by the Bearcats, but Cincinnati's Tyler Betsey was unable to knock it down.
"Are we sure it's over," DeVries jokingly asked following the game. "What a wild finish."
What a wild finish. I was super proud of the guys I thought we came out in the second half in couldn't get going we made a couple changes defensively...and i thought the guys really executed it
WVU sophomore forward Amani Hansberry paced the Mountaineers both in the scoring column and on the boards with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Senior Javon Small chipped in 16 points, while freshman Jonathan Powell added 12 points and two massive second-half three-pointers in 36 minutes -- an impressive effort for a first-year collegiate player. Cincinnati was led by a pair of 13-point performances from Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas.
WVU is back in action on Saturday with a road trip to No. 9 Texas Tech.