No. 21 West Virginia men lose big to Arizona

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — KJ Lewis scored a career-high 21 points, and Arizona beat No. 21 West Virginia, 75-56, on Tuesday night for its fifth straight win.

Jaden Bradley added 15 points, and Anthony Dell’Orso scored 10 for the Wildcats (9-5, 3-0 Big 12).

Javon Small led West Virginia (11-3, 2-1) with 17 points.

The Mountaineers, who entered the AP Top 25 this week for the first time in two years, were held to their lowest point total of the season.

West Virginia’s Tucker DeVries sat out his sixth straight game with an upper-body injury. DeVries scored 26 points in the earlier meeting between the teams. This time, the Mountaineers had no one besides Small in double figures.

Arizona avenged an overtime loss to the Mountaineers on Nov. 29 in a nonconference game in the Bahamas.

Dell’Orso limped off the court and went to the locker room briefly after running into a chair on the sideline early in the second half. He later returned to the game.

The Wildcats are on a roll since stumbling out of the gate with a 3-4 start. They finished a long road trip 2-0 after winning at then-No. 16 Cincinnati on Saturday.

After West Virginia hit three straight 3-pointers to trim a 14-point deficit to five, Lewis scored seven points during an ensuing 11-0 run with top scorer Caleb Love on the bench midway through the second half to push Arizona’s lead to 64-47.

The Wildcats took advantage of their quickness and West Virginia’s defensive lapses to score at will on layups, making 13 of them.

West Virginia plays Sunday at Colorado.