Initial Thoughts: Amani Hansberry’s Big Night Lifts WVU to Much-Needed Win
West Virginia pulled out a 62-59 victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats on Wednesday night to sweep the season series and move to 16-10 (7-8) on the season.
Here are a few of my thoughts from tonight’s game.
Survive and advance
It’s not March yet, but for West Virginia, every game feels like an NCAA Tournament game at this point. They need to get to the 19-win mark to feel really good about its chances to go dancing, so the pressure is heightened. While it wasn’t pretty at times in the second half, Darian DeVries only cares that they were able to win and stay alive. A loss tonight would have put the Mountaineers on the outside looking in,
Numerous scoring droughts
Even the best offensive teams go through them, but the number of droughts WVU goes through on a nightly basis makes it incredibly difficult to win. After running some good actions in the first half, things looked completely disjointed from the opening minutes out of the locker room for the second half. Too much dribbling and not enough ball movement. When you’re playing 3-on-5 with two guys not offering much on the offensive end, it leads to these multiple long scoring droughts you see on a nightly basis. They were able to find some things late by going through Amani Hansberry, Jonathan Powell, and of course, Javon Small.
Hansberry’s best game?
Hansberry has had a number of really strong scoring + rebounding nights this season, but tonight may have been one of his best. Why? Because he came through with a huge bucket, offensive rebound, or pass every time the Mountaineers needed it. He’s still an incredibly young player, but you can see why WVU is so excited about the player he can ultimately become. He’s a future all-league talent. Hansberry finished the night with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
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