ARIZONA WILDCATS BASKETBALL

KJ Lewis leads Arizona to road win over ranked West Virginia

Jan 7, 2025, 8:25 AM | Updated: Jan 8, 2025, 11:29 am

Arizona...

Arizona guard KJ Lewis reacts after scoring against Canisius during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — 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.

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

The Wildcats are now 9-5 on the season and with No. 3 Iowa State and No. 12 Houston holding perfect records through three games of Big 12 play.

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.

Takeaways

Arizona: 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.

West Virginia: 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.

Key moment

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.

Key stat

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

Up next

Arizona hosts UCF on Saturday. West Virginia plays at Colorado on Sunday.

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