Nothing short of an extraordinary effort would allow West Virginia to hang around Saturday in its matchup with No. 1 Arizona at the McKale Center.
Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, they never came close to mustering one. West Virginia struggled from the outset, never led and shot 34 percent in an 88-53 loss to the Wildcats.
“Their collective size and physicality around the basket pretty much negates your interior attack,” West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge said on postgame radio. “It’s hard to get the ball close to the basket. When you do, you have to be able to finish through contact. In an environment like this, you need special performances from key people. That’s what it takes to come into these type of deals and win.”
The Mountaineers (13-7, 4-3) made 10-of-34 shots in the opening half, including 3 of 15 from three-point range. In turn, WVU trailed 11-4 at the first media timeout and 22-8 at the 11:48 mark after Arizona (20-0, 7-0) got a three-pointer from Anthony Dell’orso and two free throws from Motiejus Krivas.
WVU ran off the next six points after Honor Huff and Chance Moore each accounted for a trey, but starting with a trey from Ivan Kharchenkov in response, Arizona outscored the visitors 23-9 over the remainder of the half.
The Wildcats used a 10-2 spurt over the final 3:05 of the first half to gain their first 20-point advantage, which came at 43-23 after Dwayne Aristode scored in transition just before the half concluded.
Arizona outscored WVU by nine points on threes and free throws in the first half, with the Wildcats making 9-of-12 foul shots while preventing their opponent from attempting one.
“We had some clean looks to start the game. If you’re going to beat the No. 1 team in the country on the road, your stars are going to have to be stars,” Hodge said. “Then maybe you start feeling the squeeze a bit and start rushing a little bit instead of letting the game come to you.”
WVU made one field goal over the first 4 minutes of the second half and never put a scare into Arizona, which won by 20-plus points for the 13th time this season.
The Wildcats shot better than 52 percent (31 for 59) overall and made 10-of-23 triples, while holding a 43-30 rebounding edge.
“When we’re constructed the way we are, you can’t take away everything,” Hodge said. “Maybe that’s something I have to look at. They haven’t shot the three well this year. It’s been their Achilles’ heel, but they shot it well to start the game. Have to coach better, play better and learn from it, and like anything else, we don’t have a lot of time to fret about it.”
Arizona freshmen Brayden Burries and Koa Peat were the game’s high scorers with 22 and 17 points, respectively.
Dell’orso scored 12 and Krivas 11 to make it four in double figures for the Wildcats.
Moore led WVU with 12 points. Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff scored 10 apiece in defeat, while Huff was held to 4-for-15 shooting.
Freshman guard Amir Jenkins led the Mountaineers with eight boards, but was scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting.
“We knew our guards would probably have to lead us in rebounding, because your bigs are hooked up down low with those monsters,” Hodge said.
The Mountaineers went the first 27-plus minutes without a free-throw attempt and made 3-of-4 foul shots altogether.
WVU fell to 1-7 away from home this season and 5-12 all-time against top-ranked teams.
“You have to look at it and see how far we have to go to bridge that gap,” Hodge said. “We have to continue to keep getting better, and maybe you get another crack at these guys in Kansas City and it’s a different outcome.”