The men’s basketball has been plagued all year by slow starts. Sometimes, they have been able to mount comeback, and other times they do not. They had yet another slow start at Cincinnati , finding themselves down 14-2 just over four minutes into the game, and spent most of the rest of the half trailing by a similar amount, with a 30-20 deficit. That margin grew to 14 points at the 16 minute mark. But over the next six minutes, WVU went on a 19-3 run, and took its first lead at 42-40 with just over 10 minutes remaining. From there, WVU was able to battle the Bearcats, and sealed things up in the last 2 minutes for a hard fought 59-54 win. Cincy had defended homecourt over Iowa State and Baylor this season, so a road win – even an ugly one – is still a good win in the Big 12.
Against a Top 15 Texas Tech squad, WVU once again found itself down by double digits at halftime. They kept battling and closed the gap in the second half, but fell 70-63. Overall, this wasn’t as bad of a performance as it might have looked if you only glanced at the score. The difference in the game really boiled down to two stats: free throws (once again), and three-point shooting. Texas Tech was 11/13 from the charity stripe, while WVU once again was abysmal, barely shooting 50% with 13/23. The key difference in the game, however, was three point shooting. Tech was a blistering 13/24 (54%), including 8/11 (73%) in the first half.
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