Arizona enters Saturday’s game in Tucson against UCF on a season-high five-game winning streak, with the last two wins on the road against ranked Big 12 opponents.
The Wildcats (9-5, 3-0 Big 12) beat No. 16 Cincinnati 72-67 on Jan. 4 and No. 21 West Virginia 75-56 on Tuesday. Those wins came after losing their only previous true road game 103-88 against Wisconsin on Nov. 15.
Along the way, Arizona avenged an 83-76 overtime loss to West Virginia on Nov. 29 in the third-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis event in The Bahamas.
“Our guys have been getting better ever since the Bahamas,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “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.”
West Virginia was without Tucker DeVries, who is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. In eight games before he got hurt, DeVries averaged 14.9 points per game and was hitting 47.3 percent of his 3-point attempts.
DeVries had 26 points while making 8 of 12 from deep in the win over Arizona in The Bahamas.
West Virginia upset Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., without DeVries on Dec. 31.
The Wildcats have limited opponents to 61.7 points a game in their last seven games. They allowed 73.7 per game in the first seven, which included the first matchup with West Virginia.
“We’re finding when we take care of the ball, and we don’t give up runouts, our defense is pretty good in the half court,” Lloyd said.
UCF (11-3, 2-1) bounced back after a 99-48 home loss to Kansas on Sunday by edging visiting Colorado 75-74 on Wednesday.
“It was huge for our guys,” coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We talked about regrouping and responding. That’s what this league is about. You’re going to be in tough battles every single night.”
Fifth-year guard Jordan Ivy-Curry had 22 points for UCF, which forced Colorado into a season-high 22 turnovers.
Ivy-Curry is the second-leading scorer for UCF at 15.4 points a game, barely behind Keyshawn Hall (15.6 points and 6.6 rebounds a game).
Caleb Love, who is trying to break out of a season-long shooting slump on the perimeter, leads Arizona with 15.8 points a game. He is shooting 30.3 percent from 3-point range.
–Field Level Media
