MORGANTOWN — West Virginia women’s basketball’s bounce-back win over Cincinnati and one-point loss to TCU launched it back into the AP Top 25. The Mountaineers are now ranked No. 22 in the newest AP Poll, marking the second time they’ve been ranked this season.

The Mountaineers are off to a hot start in Big 12 play and have just two losses and five wins, making for a 15-4 record overall. The wins should only grow over the next couple of games if WVU takes care of business.

After the close loss to the Horned Frogs, the Mountaineers started a stretch of games against unranked opponents, beginning with that win over Cincinnati. Now, it’ll be a matter of winning the games you’re supposed to win, so when the WVU faces the ranked opponents, like No. 14 Baylor at the start of February, it still holds a lot of weight towards an NCAA Tournament bid.

The Mountaineers kind of played with their food late against Cincinnati. At one point, WVU was up by 26, and then the Bearcats battled back to make it just a seven-point difference. WVU closed it out, but it could’ve been a bit more dominant.

“We just needed to finish that one,” head coach Mark Kellogg said.

“We were up 26 at maybe five minutes to go, somewhere in there through that 3rd quarter, just completely let off the gas a little. Different feel for what I would’ve hoped when you have that kind of a lead.”

WVU hosts Arizona State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Sun Devils aren’t ranked in any polls, but they aren’t a team to sleep on. Head coach Molly Miller, who is in her first year after coming over from Grand Canyon, has her team off to a strong start. Arizona State heads to Morgantown with a 17-2 record, and is 4-2 in conference play.

A 17-2 record is impressive, just to win that many games, but the level of competition hasn’t been the best. And when looking at a common opponent, the Sun Devils lost to TCU 77-46.

TCU is one of the more high-powered offensive teams, and Arizona State, who is ranked third-to-last in the Big 12 in offense, couldn’t keep up. The Sun Devils are a defensive squad. Arizona State allows the fourth fewest points in the conference with 58.5 points per game, which is just one spot better than WVU. It’ll be a defensive battle.

One of the reasons Cincinnati battled back was that WVU let up defensively.

“We just lost our way on the defensive end pretty bad,” Kellogg said.

The Mountaineers were pressing quite a bit against Cincinnati, and then were switching things up a little, but it wasn’t working too well. Luckily, the offense did enough to jump out to a 26-point lead, allowing a coast to the finish.

The defense will need to iron out the kinks against Arizona State, who doesn’t have a prolific offense but still has some scorers.

Guard Gabby Elliot averages 16.3 points per game and shoots 32.9% from deep. Then, forward McKinna Brackens isn’t too tall at 6-foot-1, but she leads the team and averages seven boards a game. Arizona State also added guard Last-Tear Poa from LSU to be the facilitator, and has done well so far. The Sun Devils have some weapons for WVU to watch on Wednesday.

The game doesn’t need to be pretty, like Kellogg said after the Cincinnati win. WVU is at the point in the season where it’s all tough Big 12 games, and it’s a matter of surviving. If the Mountaineers keep stacking wins, it’ll only help their resume for the postseason.

That’s easier said than done. WVU will have the home crowd behind it, which usually leads to success.

“We’ll get back to the drawing board,” Kellogg said after Cincinnati. “Quick turnaround for us, so we’ll see what we can do.”