Wild comeback sends this Big 12 team to face KU basketball at conference tournament
Top line on the Cincinnati scouting report: Keep your cool and don’t collect technical fouls.
West Virginia did the opposite and fueled the Bearcats’ 90-85 comeback victory in the Big 12 Men’s Championship opening round game Tuesday at T-Mobile Center.
The 11th-seeded Bearcats will take on No. 6 seed Kansas in second round on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
Cincinnati trailed by 16 points with 11:45 remaining but quickly made up ground courtesy of three technical fouls assessed to the Mountaineers over the next 4:21.
With Simas Lukosius making all the free throws, and tossing in a total of seven 3-pointers for the game, the Bearcats came all the way back. Lukosius scored a career-high 31 points, 26 in the second half. At the end of that flurry, Cincinnati had tied the game.
Cincinnati and the Jayhawks played once this season with KU prevailing 74-69 on Jan. 22 in Lawrence. The game was tied at halftime.
Freshman Johnny Furphy had a big day for Kansas, finishing with a season-high 23 points.