MORGANTOWN — Tucker DeVries had just spent two days of battling foot cramps, foul trouble and frustration.
The WVU guard somehow flushed all that adversity away Friday and simply dropped bombs on No. 24 Arizona.
He hit eight 3-pointers in all — some of them seemingly from Puerto Rico — as the Mountaineers made another major statement with a second overtime victory against a Top 25 opponent with their 83-76 victory against the Wildcats to win third place in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.
“Usually I don’t notice until the crowd goes oooh,” DeVries said of his long-range makes. “Obviously, I’ll see it when we go back and watch it, but I wasn’t thinking too much about it. I was just playing my game and finding my spots to take open ones.”
Some of those spots were on the Battle 4 Atlantis logo at midcourt. Most of them came between 25 and 30 feet from the rim.
It didn’t matter, as DeVries finished 8 of 12 from 3-point range — WVU (5-2) had 12 threes as a team — to finish with 26 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds.
“That guy hit some threes today that were timely and deep,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Those are incredible shots. There’s not many guys in college basketball that can make those. He got on a roll and gave them a lead and they were able to hold us off.”
DeVries had a shot to win the game in regulation, but his drive to the foul line and fade-away jumper hit off the side of the rim.
“Yeah, honestly I did think it felt good,” he admitted.
Somehow, it made sense that it didn’t go in, because what would another WVU game in the Bahamas be without another extra five-minute period?
WVU blew past No. 3 Gonzaga in overtime on Wednesday, before coming up short a day later against Louisville in overtime in the semifinals.
In this third overtime, WVU was a perfect 4 of 4 shooting, including critical 3-pointers from DeVries and Toby Okani that gave the Mountaineers the early momentum.
“Going into the overtimes, you’re not thinking about how tired you are,” DeVries said. “I think the team that gives in the quickest and thinks about how tired they are is going to fold. Our group just stuck with it and continued to focus on the next play. That, ultimately, is what got us over the hump in this last one.”
WVU finished it off by going 7 of 8 from the foul line in OT. All of those came from point guard Javon Small, who played a combined 128 minutes over the three games. He finished with 14 points and eight assists against the Wildcats (3-4).
“They showed a lot of character and a lot of heart,” Lloyd said. “I think those guys were probably running on fumes, but they have a lot of pride.”
It was pride that was challenged in the second half, as Arizona had erased a 59-49 deficit with 9:48 left in regulation.
Caleb Love — the Pac-12 Player of the Year last season — nailed a 3-pointer to tie it with 14 seconds left.
DeVries handled the ball for WVU on the final possession. He dribbled off about 10 seconds, before driving left and then sliding to the right for a fade-away 16-footer that didn’t fall, and the game remained tied at 66.
Amani Hansberry scored on a low-basket move and then DeVries nailed a 3-pointer that gave WVU the early 71-66 lead.
Love, who finished with 24 points but needed 20 shots to do so, then scored on a drive to the rim.
He scored on another drive to cut WVU’s lead to 73-70, but then Okani nailed his three from the corner that basically sealed the outcome.
Okani finished with 20 points and five rebounds.
While the Mountaineers won the game with clutch moments, they also showed plenty of toughness. WVU finished with a 40-39 rebound advantage and scored 24 points off of Arizona’s 14 turnovers.
WVU also grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, picked up 11 steals and finished with a 16-8 advantage in fast-break points.
“I’ve never been a part of three games like that, especially with the quality of opponents we went up against these last three days,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “It was just incredible resolve and grit from our group all three nights.
“To come away with a win tonight and do it again in overtime, I couldn’t be any more proud of them.”
