WVU Basketball: Mazzulla, Flowers Lead Mountaineers Over Cincinnati 66-55

After the dreadful shooting night on Wednesday, the West Virginia Mountaineers entered last night's game with the Cincinnati Bearcats looking for a win to keep up in conference play and keep some of the momentum they gained from their good January play.

The Mountaineers were able to accomplish both of those objectives as they left the Queen City with a 66–55 win on Saturday night.

With leading scorer Casey Mitchell suspended, John Flowers and Deniz Kilicli put West Virginia on their shoulders throughout the beginning part of the game as they scored 16 points collectively in addition to seven rebounds for WVU.

Guard Darryl Bryant also added six points to the Mountaineers’ cause in the first half.

For the Bearcats, coming off a good win against Rutgers on Wednesday, leading scorers Dion Dixon and Yancy Gates powered the offense for UC during the opening half as the duo netted 13 points as well as grabbing four rebounds.

As the first half ended, the Bearcats’ shots failed to hit the mark as the Mountaineers went on a 16-6 run during the final six minutes of the half, leading to a 31-30 halftime score at halftime.

As the second half opened, the offense for the Bearcats came solely from Cashmere Wright, dominating the first 10 plus minutes with seven points as he was the focal point of the bearcat offense.

Just as Wright was leading the way for the home team, Joe Mazzulla was showing flashes of his best Steve Nash impression in the second half as he spread the ball out to John Flowers and others leading to eight assists for the game.

With that being said, let’s get to the stats from tonight’s game on how the Mountaineers were able to bounce back from a loss for a huge Big East win.

Players of the Game:

West Virginia: Joe Mazzulla – 16 Points, Seven Rebounds, Eight Assists, Two Steals

Cincinnati: Cashmere Wright – 24 Points, Three Rebounds, Assist, Steal

Shooting:

West Virginia: 42.2 Percent, 19-45 Field Goals Made-Attempted

Cincinnati: 35.0 Percent, 21-60 Field Goals Made- Attempted

Free Throw Shooting:

West Virginia: 24-30 Free Throws Made-Attempted, 80.0 Percent

Cincinnati: 5-11 Free Throw Made-Attempted, 45.5 Percent

Rebounding:

West Virginia: 36 Rebounds, 11 Offensive Rebounds

Cincinnati: 27 Rebounds, 13 Offensive Rebounds

Turnovers:

West Virginia: 13 Turnovers

Cincinnati: Eight Turnovers