It wasn't that long ago that Arizona was under .500 during the non-conference with fans questioning the everything surrounding the team. Now, you fast forward into January, and the Wildcats seem to have found their groove winning five-straight games as UA clobbered No. 21 West Virginia Tuesday night 75-56 on the road.
Not only has Arizona (9-5, 2-0 Big 12) won five-straight games, the Wildcats have now won back-to-back games against AP Top 25 teams in No. 16 Cincinnati and now No. 21 West Virginia.
"Great effort by our guys. We needed that. Our guys have been getting better ever since the Bahamas," coach Tommy Lloyd said following the game. "It’s been kind of just figuring it out, for me as a coach, helping them figure it out. I was figuring out what we could do better, and these guys taking it upon themselves to be accountable on the court."
Leading the charge on the road for Arizona was guard KJ Lewis, who continued playing off the bench but might've put together his best performance with the program. Lewis had a team-high 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting from the field while snagging four assists and three rebounds.
Before moving to the bench, Lewis struggled as a starter averaging 9.5 points while shooting 40% from the field. Now that he is coming off the bench, he is shooting 61% from the field while averaging 11.5 points per game during this stretch.
As a team, the Wildcats shot an impressive 51% from the field and connected on seven 3-point buckets.
In the paint, Arizona's offense was able to control the post outscoring 36-22 against the Mountaineers. A large part of that was the effort on the glass where the Wildcats totaled 40 rebounds and scored nine second-chance points.
"I think the last thing, we worked the offense correctly," said Lloyd. "We made no bones about it, we’re a team that doesn’t mind scoring in the paint and we’re not trying to shoot 50 threes. We’re a little bit old school, but we moved better this game."
Other than Lewis, the Wildcats got a needed boost from point guard Jaden Bradley, who scored an efficient 15 points while going 6 of 10 from the field. Bradley managed to collect four rebounds and five assists to his one turnover in 37 minutes on the court.
On the defensive side of the ball, Arizona was stout holding the Mountaineers to 36% from the field and locking in at the 3-point line giving up just eight buckets from deep on 29 attempts.
The Wildcats forced WVU into 10 turnovers, which led to 15 points on the other end for Arizona. Plus, UA had nine fast break points against a defense that likes to keep teams from running up and down the court.
Arizona has opened up its conference season going 3-0 in what many believe to be the toughest conference from top-to-bottom nationally in the Big 12.
The Wildcats will now head home against host a two-game slate against UCF (10-3) and Baylor (10-4) with late tip off times for both matchups.
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