Arizona loses to West Virginia to drop to first losing record in 15 years

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — As if the Arizona Wildcats didn’t already know how rough the Big 12 road ahead might be, some pretty ominous foreshadowing might have arrived Friday in the Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game.

West Virginia, picked to finish 13th out of 16 teams in the ever-evolving conference, outlasted No. 24-ranked Arizona in overtime, 83-76, despite having to play its third straight overtime game in as many days.

The Mountaineers led for 26 minutes of the 45-minute game, continuing unfazed in overtime after UA’s Caleb Love hit a transition 3-pointer to tie the game before the end of regulation. Love scored 24 points for the Wildcats but made only 4 of 12 3-pointers.

The loss sent Arizona to 3-4, its first losing record since the 2009-10 Wildcats started that season with the same record, signaling that not only is the Big 12 potential trouble but, also, that it might help if they can just manage to start Big 12 play in one piece to begin with.

“We know it’s a tough road” ahead, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We’re living it right now. We’ve never overlooked anybody and I never looked at the Big 12 preseason rankings coming into this deal. West Virginia is a good team. They’ve got a good coach, a good system and a couple of really good players.”

Those two players, wing Toby Okani and forward Tucker DeVries, combined for 46 points to carry the Mountaineers to their second upset of a ranked team in three days. West Virginia took out No. 3 Gonzaga in the first round on Wednesday before losing to Louisville on Thursday.

DeVries had 26 points while hitting 8 of 12 3-pointers, while Okani added 20 points and hit two key 3-pointers from the left corner that kept pushing the Wildcats back.

“Personally, I feel we’re the team that was ready for the overtime,” Okani said. “We’ve played two overtime games (before) and we went in there confident that it just gave us an extra five minutes for us to prove that we should win the game.”

Sure enough, early in the overtime period, West Virginia appeared fresh, taking a 76-70 lead by the time Okani hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:18 left. West Virginia guard Javon Small drew a foul from UA’s KJ Lewis and hit both ends of a one-and-one at the line to put the Mountaineers up by eight.

The Wildcats made a final push when two straight West Virginia turnovers led to a layup from Love that pulled UA within 78-74 with 49 seconds left, but the UA never pulled any closer.

Arizona made a similar lunge forward late in regulation, trailing nearly the entire second half and by up to 10 points. Okani hit a 3-pointer with 2:06 left that gave West Virginia a 66-61 lead, but the Wildcats kept the Mountaineers scoreless the rest of the half.

After Love and West Virginia’s Sencire Harris both missed 3-point attempts, UA forward Trey Townsend drove in for a layup. Then UA’s Lewis blocked a shot from Small, leading to a rebound by Townsend and Love’s game-tying 3.

The Wildcats had momentum, but it was short-lived. The Mountaineers scored the first five points in overtime, including another 3 from DeVries, and never lost the lead from there.

“We just gotta have better starts to the games, the second half and overtime,” Love said. “In overtime they took over the momentum early. The turnovers hurt us in this game and we’ve got to figure out what we want to do and how good (we can be). Because I still believe we’re a good team.”

The Wildcats did have some signs to be encouraged about, but each was negated by another issue. They received 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting from Townsend, but received only three combined points from their 7-footers, a single point from Motiejus Krivas and just two from Henri Veesaar.

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“We’ve got to get our bigs playing better,” Lloyd said. “Our bigs have always been an integral part of what we do. They’ve got to be able to create advantages for us.”

Love finished with 24 points on 9-for-20 shooting, and the Wildcats received 10 from fellow wing Lewis, who did not start after picking up a technical foul for an inappropriate celebration against Oklahoma. Lloyd expressed disappointment about Lewis’ actions on Thursday and then on Friday confirmed he started freshman Carter Bryant over Lewis as a result.

“I had a talk with KJ, and a talk with the team,” Lloyd said. “If something like that happens again, we’re going to have to address it. We’ve gotta start exhibiting more winning habits.”

Finally, while the Wildcats shot 45.3% from the field and held West Virginia to 39.7% shooting overall, the Mountaineers hit 12 for 34 3s and scored 24 points off 14 UA turnovers.

“They were live-ball turnovers — they got out in transition and were able to take advantage,” Lloyd said. “They were really gappy in their defense and we lost some balls. That was the thing in the first half that caused us to stall out a little bit. We just lost balls, whether it was rebounding, losing the ball off the dribble or getting it in the paint and losing it. We’ve got to be stronger.”

The Wildcats led most of the first half and took an 18-10 lead on a 3 from Love with 12:42 left, but West Virginia quickly cut it to three after KJ Tenner hit a fast-break jumper and DeVries hit a 3-pointer as he kept rolling.

DeVries later hit a 3 to give West Virginia a 37-34 lead with 2:22 left in the first half and drew a foul from Lewis while shooting a 3 with 1:09 left. DeVries hit two of three ensuing free throws to give the Mountaineers their two-point halftime edge.

“That guy had some 3s today that were timely and deep,” Lloyd said. “Those are incredible shots and there’s not many guys in college basketball that can make those.”

DeVries actually could have ended the game at the end of regulation, when West Virginia’s final possession went through him. But the Wildcats tightly contested his turnaround jumper from about 10 feet out, with the ball bouncing off the rim and backboard, sending the game into overtime.

Arizona will get another shot at the Mountaineers on Jan. 8 in Morgantown, during their first Big 12 road swing of the season.

By then, Lloyd can only hope the Wildcats are in a different place. Things probably won’t get any easier after that.

“We’re gonna get back in the gym and work. We’re gonna clean things up,” Lloyd said. “This is not the product we want to be putting out on the court right now.”