MORGANTOWN — Cincinnati didn’t shoot West Virginia out of its zone defense Saturday.
The Bearcats lobbed dunked the Mountaineers out of it.
There were so many alley-oops that one would have thought Cincinnati players were either playing on a trampoline or had springs in their sneakers.
In either case, it led to total domination in the paint, as Cincinnati rolled past the Mountaineers 92-56 in Fifth Third Arena to close out the regular season.
“Whatever isolation situation they wanted, they got it right at the rim,” WVU head coach Josh Eilert said on his radio postgame show. “I told them before the game that if we don’t take pride in our defense, not only from an individual standpoint, but from a team standpoint, we can’t win.”
The Mountaineers (9-22, 4-14 Big 12) didn’t take much pride in defense in the second half, as the Bearcats shot an amazing 70% (21 of 30) in the final 20 minutes. Cincinnati’s 56-point second half was the exact amount WVU had for the entire game.
And the Mountaineers didn’t win, either, with this one setting a program record for most losses in one season with 22.
It was also the fifth time this season WVU allowed more than 90 points in a game, and they all came over the final nine games of the regular season. The 36-point margin of defeat is tied for the worst loss by the Mountaineers in Big 12 play.
All of it led to WVU finishing in last place in Eilert’s interim season since taking over for Bob Huggins last June.
The Mountaineers will be the No. 14 seed at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Big 12 tournament, in Kansas City, Mo., where they will see Cincinnati once again.
The Bearcats (18-13, 7-11) were pushed down to the 11th seed following Kansas State’s 65-58 upset victory against No. 6 Iowa State.
“We’ll see how we respond,” Eilert said. “I challenged them and we’ll see what we’re made of. We turn around and play that same team. If we don’t have a bad taste in our mouth, and if we don’t compete at the highest level, then we have to look ourselves in the mirror and figure out if you really want to play the game of basketball.”
As for Saturday’s regular-season finale, it got out of hand quickly in the second half.
WVU guard RaeQuan Battle hit a jump shot that cut the Bearcats lead to 36-31 in the opening moments.
Just five minutes later, Cincinnati was rolling with a 15-point lead.
In all, the Bearcats came away with nine dunks, most of them worthy of a highlight for SportsCenter.
In the paint, that’s where Cincinnati did its damage, finishing with a headshaking 48-14 advantage around the rim. The Bearcats also came away with a 37-23 rebounding advantage.
“Nothing went our way,” Eilert said, before being asked the cause for the lack of defense. “It’ a little bit of everything. We don’t have a whole lot of natural defenders on the floor, so there has to be a lot of help.
“Every time we tried to change the defense on them, they got what they wanted. They had three lobs behind the zone. There was no way to stop the bleeding.”
The Mountaineers will enter the Big 12 tournament on a five-game losing streak, in which they’ve been outscored by an average of 14 points per game.
Cincinnati shot 59% (36 of 61) for the game, the highest percentage allowed by WVU this season.
Dan Skilling Jr. led four Cincinnati players in double figures with 17 points.
Noah Farrakhan (12 points) was the only WVU player who scored in double digits.
Jesse Edwards, who was coming off a historic 36-point and 13-rebound effort against TCU, was held to just eight points and four rebounds.
