WVU Winning Streak Snapped as Arizona Avenges Earlier Loss

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU basketball’s seven-game winning streak was snapped as the Arizona Wildcats avenged an earlier loss to the Mountaineers with a 75-56 win inside the Coliseum Tuesday night. 

No. 21 West Virginia (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) defeated Arizona (9-5, 3-0) 83-76 in overtime earlier this season in a non-conference matchup in The Bahamas. Tucker DeVries scored a season-high 26 points in that game with eight three-pointers.

WVU’s offense wasn’t nearly as effective on Tuesday as DeVries missed his sixth-straight game with an upper-body injury. Freshman guard KJ Tenner also missed the game after taking a hard fall on Saturday.

The teams played even for the first nine minutes before WVU’s offense fell into a cold spell that rivaled the weather outside. The Mountaineers went through a six-minute stretch where they shot just 1-10 from the floor.

Arizona, by contrast, caught fire from the floor, making 8-10 shots from the floor at one point. An 18-7 allowed the Wildcats to open up a double-digit lead on the Mountaineers and eventually lead by 11 at halftime, 39-28.

Arizona’s lead grew as large as 14 points before the roles started to reverse in the second half. Sincere Harris capped off six straight makes for the Mountaineers with back-to-back three-pointers that cut the lead down to five, 48-43, and forced Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd to call a timeout.

Whatever Lloyd said in the huddle worked, as the Wildcats put together an 11-point run to build their largest lead of the night, 64-47, and effectively put the Mountainers away.

Sophomore KJ Lewis led Arizona With 21 points shooting a tidy 9-13 from the floor. Jaden Bradley was next with 15 points.

Small once again led the Mountaineers in scoring with 17 points. He led the team in rebounding for the third game in a row with six boards to go with five assists. Toby Okani registered three blocks and three steals to go with his eight points. Harris, Jonathan Powell and Amani Hansberry all also finished with eight points.

WVU basketball will now take a short two-game trip to take on Colorado on Sunday at 3 p.m. and Houston next Wednesday at 8 p.m.