West Virginia gave up 26 runs Tucker DeVries survive 24^e– Ranked Arizona 83-76 in overtime in the third place match at this year’s Bad Boys Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis at the Atlantis Resort Imperial Arena on Paradise Island, Bahamas.

It was the third straight overtime game for WVU, which outlasted third-place Gonzaga two days ago and lost to Louisville yesterday.

“I’ve been doing this as a coach for 27 years now and I don’t know if I’ve had a three-match group like this where I was more impressed and proud of a group of men who showed incredible fight, determination and toughness,” coach of West Virginia Darian DeVries said. ‘Perhaps even more important: solidarity. They just refused to give up.”

It is believed to be the first time in school history that West Virginia has ever played three consecutive overtime games.

These days, DeVries has been virtually unstoppable at times, especially from behind the three-point arc, where he made 8-of-12, including a pair right in front of the halfway line. DeVries had 17 points at halftime to give WVU a 39-37 lead at intermission.

“We had to get (Tucker) to give us that other scoring opportunity,” DeVries said. “We didn’t make him look clean enough and he was a bit forgotten in our attack. He staggered and got some movement. Plus he created some chances for other people.”

WVU, backup big Eduaro Andre after his injury yesterday against Louisville and still without Jayden Stonehad to move one player deeper on the bench with senior forward Haris Elezovic getting his first meaningful minutes of the season. Elezovic did not score, but did grab two rebounds in seven minutes of action.

“When we line up and play, there are no excuses,” DeVries said. “We have 40 minutes to win the game so let’s figure it out and I thought they did an incredible job of rallying around each other (today) to find a way to come away again with an extra-time win to come out.”

The Mountaineers (5-2) appeared to be in control of the game with less than four minutes remaining Javon Klein two free throws gave them a 63-56 lead, but empty possessions allowed the Wildcats to fight back.

KJ Lewis converted a traditional three-point play to cut West Virginia’s lead to four, then Jaden Bradley’s layup made it a two-point game with three minutes remaining.

Toby Okani answered with a corner 3 with 2:06 to go, but that was WVU’s last field goal in regulation.

Trey Townsend converted a layup with 47 seconds left and Caleb Love hit a transition 3 with 14 seconds left to tie the game.

After a timeout in West Virginia, Tucker DeVries was unable to get his shot inside the free throw line to go down and win the game.

In the overtime, Amani Hansberry got things started with a jumper and then DeVries hit another 3 to give WVU a 71-66 lead. The margin increased to eight on two small free throws with 1:32 to go and reached eight again on two more small charities with 27 seconds left.

“I thought the guys did a great job in overtime,” DeVries said. “We started moving a bit again and like I said to our boys, I’m still learning how to play with them at the end of the games and we got a bit too happy.

“We tried to match late and we didn’t get great possession there, so we wanted to get back to what gave us some success of getting more of our off-ball movement back and letting them chase us a little bit,” said DeVries.

WVU won today’s game despite leading 45.3% to 39.7% and outscoring 38 to 20 in the paint.


The Mountaineers made up for it with a 24-6 advantage in points off turnovers and their 21 assists on 27 made baskets.


Okani contributed a season-high 20 on 7-of-11 shooting, while Small, who scored 57 points in the first two games of the tournament against Gonzaga and Louisville, finished with 14 this afternoon.


Hansberry contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds. WVU held a 40 to 39 lead on the glass against the much bigger Wildcats.


Arizona, which drops to 3-4, got 24 points from Love and 19 from Townsend.


West Virginia is back at the WVU Coliseum next Friday night to take on old Big East foe Georgetown in a Big 12-Big East Battle that will be televised nationally on ESPN2.


Tickets are available and can be purchased by logging onto WVUGAME.com.