MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Amani Hansberry scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and West Virginia pulled out a 62-59 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday night after nearly blowing a nine-point lead in the final seconds.
Trailing by six midway through the second half, the Mountaineers (16-10, 7-8 Big 12) went on a 21-6 run led by seven points from Hansberry to lead 62-53 with 7.9 seconds left. Cincinnati’s Dan Skillings Jr. banked in a long 3-pointer then grabbed a tipped inbounds pass and threw in another 3. Jizzle James forced a turnover on the next inbounds pass and Tyler Betsey got loose for an open look from straightaway, but his shot bounced off the front of the rim.
Javon Small added 16 points and Jonathan Powell 12 points and nine rebounds for West Virginia, which swept the season series.
James and Day Day Thomas each scored 13 points, Dillon Mitchell and Skillings had 10 each and Aziz Bandaogo grabbed 10 rebounds for the Bearkats (15-11, 5-10). Cincinnati played without double-figure scorer Simas Lukosius, out with an injury suffered in a loss to Iowa State on Saturday.
Cincinnati got the game’s first bucket but Small capped a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer and the Mountaineers led the rest of the half, going up by nine with 8 1/2 minutes left in the half. They led 29-27 at halftime.
Cincinnati is home against TCU and West Virginia travels to No. 9 Texas Tech in Saturday games.
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