West Virginia Looks to End Skid on the Road Against Cincinnati

The Mountaineers and the Bearcats come into the matchup on a three-game losing streak

Christopher Hall | Feb 2, 2025

West Virginia University guard Jonathan Powell / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

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West Virginia Mountaineers

Morgantown, WV - West Virginia will look to end a three-game losing streak and will have to do it on the road at Cincinnati on Sunday.

West Virginia ranks near the bottom of the league in field goal percentage. The Mountaineers (13-7, 4-5) began the week shooting a league-worst 39.5% from the floor in Big 12 Conference play but shot 46.5% against a stingy Houston defense, upping the average to 40.1%, moving 14th. However, WVU only scored 49 points against the Cougars and sits at 15th in the league at 61.0 ppg during the conference action.

The Mountaineers have struggled offensively this season, especially with senior forward Tucker DeVries sidelined with an undisclosed upper body injury since early December and has yet to play a Big 12 game.

Javon Small is averaging a Big 12-high 19.1 ppg this season. The senior guard was held to his lowest output of eight points against Houston.

The supporting cast around Small has lacked consistency. Only three Mountaineers have reached double figures in the last three games, sophomore guard Sencire Harris, freshman guard Jonathan Powell, and sophomore forward Amani Hansberry have hit the mark once.

Defensively, West Virginia is near the top of the Big 12 in conference play, sitting behind Houston at no. 2 in points allowed per game at 64.9. The biggest issue for the Mountaineers has been in transition and in the paint, and the defensive field goal percentage has dipped in the process and are now 12th (44.7%).

West Virginia had slow starts during the losing streak, allowing a 10-2 run against Arizona State, 19-2 at Kansas State, and 13-3 against Houston.

“I don’t quite understand why we’ve gotten off to slow starts here recently,” West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.

“We just got to bring it,” senior guard Joseph Yesufu added. “It’s on us at the end of the day. So, we just got to figure out how to get off to the best start that we can.”

Despite being down 20 at the half to Houston, West Virginia crawled back into the game and got within five due to its defense.

“The reason we got back into the game because I felt like our guys played defensively at a level that they’re capable of and for us when we’re good, it’s our defense,” DeVries said.

Cincinnati is the midst of a three-game skid and returns home after a two-game road trip.

The Bearcats (12-8, 2-7) went 10-1 in non-conference play, including a win over then-top-25-ranked Dayton.

Similar to West Virginia, Cincinnati has struggled on the offensive end of the floor in Big 12 play, ranking last in scoring (60.7), three-point percentage (26.3%), and 15th in field goal percentage (39.7%).

Cincinnati has four players averaging double figures, with senior guard/forward Simas Lukosius averaging a team-high 12.2 ppg. However, since the start of the league schedule, senior guard Dan Skillings Jr. is leading the way at 11.1 ppg but has failed to reach double figures during the skid.

Cincinnati leads the all-time series at 12-11.

West Virginia and Cincinnati will tip-off at 2:00 p.m. EST and the action will stream on ESPN+.

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