This Sunday, the Mountaineers will host the Buffalo Bulls, as this will be only the fifth time these two teams have matched up against one another.
With the very first matchup dating back to 1918, since then, there have been some very memorable matchups between these schools.
One of those games was the last time they played in 2018. WVU was ranked No. 13 early in the season, as this was their first game that year.
What started as a close game early in the first half, towards the end, the Mountaineers started to pull away with the game.
Late in the second half, with three minutes to go, Buffalo was again neck and neck with WVU as they would hit two back-to-back threes making West Virginia’s lead even smaller.
With just under twenty seconds to go, WVU was up 84-81, and Buffalo had a chance to send it to overtime.
Buffalo would inbound the ball and hand it over to CJ Massinburg, who would launch a mile-long three and swish it, tieing the game with just under fourteen seconds to go to send the game to overtime.
In overtime, The Mountaineers could not hold their ground and ended up losing their first game of the year, 99-94, to an unranked Buffalo Bulls team.
For the rest of the 2018-2019 season, it would be a disappointing one as they would finish with an overall record of 15-21 and 4-14 in conference play.
In 2015 these two teams would meet again in the round of 64 in March Madness.
Coming into that game, West Virginia was seeded No. 5, while Buffalo was seeded No. 12.
This was a close contest the entire way, and once again, Buffalo would find themselves inching closer to taking a late lead in the second half.
With just under two minutes to go, Buffalo’s Xaviar Ford would knock down a game tieing three to make the score 62-62.
But with under a minute to play, WVU would start to slip away from the Bulls yet again as West Virginia’s Tarik Phillip would hit a three-pointer to give the Mountaineers a 67-62 lead, which would prove to be just enough to hold off Buffalo and advance to the round of 32.
That year West Virginia would make it all the way to the sweet sixteen and losing to the No. 1-seeded Kentucky Wildcats 78-39.
With this year’s matchup approaching fast, WVU fans are waiting to see if another heart-pounding game against Buffalo will be in store at the WVU Coliseum.
