Arizona women's basketball upsets No. 16 West Virginia for a statement win

Arizona wasn’t satisfied with just two regular old wins over the last week, they were ready to make a statement. And boy, did they ever – taking down No. 16 West Virginia 77-62 in McKale Center Saturday night in front of 7,773 fans.

This is Arizona’s first win against a ranked team this season as they improve to 14-8, 5-4 in the Big 12. West Virginia drops to 16-4, 6-3 in the Big 12.

It was a total team effort for the Wildcats on both offense and defense. On defense, Arizona was swarming, altering shots and working the angles to make it difficult for the Mountaineers to get into a real offensive flow.

"I thought our lack of offense and quality shots and sharing the basketball led to their offense a lot, and they were out in transition," West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said. "Fast break points was 20 to 10, and that's a huge number to give up. Some of those were off of probably our bad shots. When you're always thinking, when you're taking bad shots, it leads to good shots for the other team. We just lost our way, lost our identity a little bit. ... You've got to be so perfect defensively when you're playing from behind the whole night. And we just weren't."

On offense, Skylar Jones sparked the Wildcats off the bench for the second consecutive game. Against Cincinnati on Wednesday, she scored 16 points in 16 minutes in the second half. Against the Mountaineers she finished with another 16 points.

"She was huge," Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. "If (Jones) doesn't do what she does, we don't win the game. She came in, had some huge plays ... defensively, offensively, that spark is a momentum shifter and it's important."

But this wasn’t a one-Wildcat show. Every Wildcat did their part as Arizona scored the second most points any opponent has scored against the Mountaineers this season – with Texas putting up 78 points.

Breya Cunningham scored 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds – just one rebound shy of a double-double. Jada Williams chipped in 13 points and Paulina Paris added 16 points.

"I think it's a big win for us ..." Cunningham said. "I think that was showing us if we play confident, play together, play strong, we can beat a lot of good teams."

Cunningham and Paris have now scored more than 500 points in their collegiate careers. Cunningham has also blocked 100 shots. 

Arizona took a 46-30 lead into halftime and West Virginia fought back outscoring the Wildcats 14-7 in the third quarter to close the gap to nine points, 53-44.

The key moment of the game was a intentional foul called on the Mountaineers – that was reviewed – after Mailien Rolf was elbowed in the face. Arizona got two free throws, which Williams took – and made – and went on a 15-2 run in more than 3 minutes to put the game out of reach.

As a punctuation, Williams knocked down a 3, got a steal and knocked down another 3 in less then 20 seconds and back-to-back possessions.

It was a close battle in the first half until Jones sparked the Wildcats – starting with a 7-0 run of her own in the second quarter. She scored on a long two (her foot was on the line), a legit 3 and a steal and a basket – in 30 seconds of action to give UA a 28-19 lead with just under 8 minutes left. Arizona forced three turnovers in this span. It was Jones who forced West Virginia to call a timeout.

Then, the Wildcats came out and went on an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 42-24. Cunningham was pulling down defensive rebounds and the offense was in a flow with everyone moving and sharing the ball. They were sharing it so much that on one possession, Paris picked a steal, passed to Williams who passed to Rolf and then an assist for a easy basket by Sahnya Jah.

Lauryn Swann didn't play and wasn't in the building. She was injured in Wednesday's game at the end of the first half on a drive to the basket and took an elbow to the ear. 

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She said it

"I thought the third quarter (we) came out super unfocused. I thought we played a very good first half. I think that was one of our best first halves of the year. And I thought that probably (we were) very comfortable and confident at halftime. We're young, and then very lackadaisical in the third quarter, and they came out and punched us. They ramped up their pressure, and we were coughing the ball up. That was not a good start. But then we found ways. After the intentional foul, went on a big run. ... (We) really had momentum and a couple gut-check shots, and I think just did a really good job of figuring a way to still win without running offense and getting punched in the face in the third quarter." – Barnes

Stuffing the stat sheet

Cunningham: 3 steals, 3 blocks

Isis Beh: 3 assists, 1 steal

Williams: 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals

Paris: 5 steals, 5 assists, 4 rebounds

Jones: 4 rebounds, 3 steals

The other side

JJ Quinerly scored 26 points and Sydney Shaw chipped in 10 points. Quinerly also had four steals.

By the numbers

2: The game was tied twice early on. Arizona held the lead for nearly 38 minutes. 

19: Arizona scored 19 points off 21 turnovers and collected 14 steals. 

1: The Wildcats held the Mountaineers to one made 3 out of 12 attempts. Meanwhile, UA made seven from long range. 

Photos: Arizona claws past No. 16 West Virginia 77-62, Big 12, basketball