Tech fouls help Cincy top WVU in Big 12 tourney
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After being thoroughly embarrassed by Cincinnati in the regular-season finale, losing by 36 points, 92-56, West Virginia drew the Bearcats again in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament and interim coach Josh Eilert wanted to make sure his term as head coach did not end with another whimper.
The coach spent the two days in between stoking whatever fire was left within his Mountaineer locker room to get an emotional, physical and hot response out of his team but he must have turned the heat up too high, for they were burned by three technical fouls within a four-minute span of the second half, igniting the Bearcats onto a run in which they wiped out a 16-point WVU lead and eliminated the Mountaineers, 90-85.
Eilert, whose year as Bob Huggins' replacement ended with the worst season in Mountaineer history at 9-23, revealed before the game that he and his staff had challenged the players by showing them the glee with which Cincinnati celebrated as they scored 56 second-half points in that last meeting in an effort to light the fuse.
"We showed them on film Cincinnati dancing around on the sideline; enjoying themselves to our dismay. If they have a competitive bone in their body they are going to come out here angry and try to get some revenge," Eilert said.
"I want to see the fire in their eyes from the jump."
The problem, it turned out, was that flames he lit were uncontrollable as WVU opened the second half with a strong run and its lead to 64-48 with 12 minutes to play when Kobe Johnson made a difficult shot on the inside to complete a 12-4 Mountaineer run.
The basket, though, wasn't enough for Johnson. Seconds later the officials had hit him with "T as Taunting and Technical and Two free throws."
It also stood for Too bad.
This, perhaps, might be the right time to note that the officiating crew was headed by Kipp Kissinger. Need anything more be said.
Joining Kobe Johnson in drawing technical fouls was both RaeQuan Battle and Jesse Edwards, leaving each of them with four fouls.
The flames jumped from one bench to the other at that moment of Johnson's technical foul. You could almost see the Bearcats lighting up as Simas Lukosious made the two free throws and just moments later canned a 3.
"At the end of the day, it came down to discipline," Eilert said. "The parade to the free throw line, things that we can control, you know, discipline in terms of, you know, not getting technical fouls, 6 points at the line and in critical moments where we had some momentum and it just killed that momentum."
It was a forerunner of what was to come for Lukosious, who finished with 30 points that included 8 of 13 from the floor and 7 of 12 from 3-point range. He would be joined down the stretch by Day Day Thomas, who finished with 29 points, on 10 of 18 shooting with 7 of 10 from 3-point range.
Those two hit 15 of the 16 3's that WVU's disappeared defense would give up this game, allowing it to become the fifth game in the last 10 when the Mountaineers allowed 90 or more points.
It was a complete turnaround from the style they played at Cincinnati, the Bearcats there scoring 48 points in the paint. This time they bothered going inside and the Mountaineers outscored them, 36-20, in the paint but between 16 3's and six points off the three technicals, it was just too deep a hole for WVU to dig out of.
"As I look at the box score, I told those guys we had to change the game plan from Saturday's performance, and we certainly did that and figured out how we shored up that paint, but at the end of the day, credit to them stepping up and making shot after shot," Eilert said in his post-game interview.
As has been the case through the last couple of weeks of the season, offense has not been a problem for WVU.
They shot 55% from the field in this loss and over the last five games, all losses, they shot 52.9% from the field, averaging 76.4 points per game.
As it was, this final game was among the most entertaining of the season as both teams not only laid their hearts out on the floor, but it was filled with tension as they battled through 18 lead changes with heroes on both benches.
For WVU, Jesse Edwards played his last game as Mountaineer and had 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting to show the way, while Quinn Slazinski played what probably is his final game at the school and added 15 points and 7 rebounds to his statistics.
Battle had 14 points, Kerr Kriisa 13 and JoJo Harris 10 as WVU had five in double figures while Kobe Johnson had eight clutch points.
But in the end it was too much Lukosious and Thomas and not enough defense for the Mountaineers.