TUCSON, Ariz. — Breya Cunningham scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Paulina Paris and Skylar Jones added 16 points apiece on Saturday night and Arizona beat No. 16 West Virginia 77-62 for the Wildcats’ first win over an opponent ranked in the AP Top 25 this season.
Cunningham made 7 of 11 from the field and finished with three steals and three blocks. West Virginia simply had no answer for the 6-foot-4 sophomore.
“I think this is a big win for us, because we are such a young team,” said Cunningham, who scored in double figures for the first time since Jan. 8. “We started to gel together as a team in the beginning, and it showed we could play confident, play together and play strong. We’ve shown we can play close with some of these teams, but to finally beat one was good.”
Jada Williams added 13 points, including three 3-pointers, for Arizona (14-8, 5-4 Big 12).
“I’m very proud of my team,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “We beat a really good West Virginia team that is phenomenal defensively. They have three dynamic scoring guards who are some of the best in the country.
“I’m proud of our very young backcourt, which is much younger than they’re backcourt. I thought we came out and handled their pressure and really played well at home.”
J.J. Quinerly led West Virginia (16-4, 6-3) with 26 points and Sydney Shaw scored 10, but there wasn’t much help for the Mountaineers after that.
Jordan Harrison hit a jumper that gave the Mountaineers a 15-14 lead with 1:32 left in the first quarter, but Williams answered with a 3-pointer 18 seconds later and Arizona never trailed again.
Shaw made a jumper to open the second quarter that tied it at 17-all, but Jones scored the next seven points to spark a 12-2 spurt. Arizona outscored WVU 29-15 in the second quarter.
“We had a disaster of a second quarter and really just lost our way,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “That was the difference, to be honest.”
Quinerly hit a jumper in the paint that trimmed West Virginia’s deficit to seven points with 7:44 remaining in the game, which is when Arizona took control.
WVU freshman forward Jordan Thomas was whistled for an intentional foul, which led to two made free throws by Williams. Cunningham scored down low after that and then Williams added two more 3-pointers. Just like that, Arizona’s lead was back up to 20 points just three minutes later.
“We lost the momentum on the intentional foul,” Kellogg said. “It went to double digits again and never recovered from there. We didn’t play our best. That’s not the quality of basketball team we’ve been most of the year.”
The Mountaineers made a season-low one 3-pointer on 12 attempts. Harrison, the Mountaineers’ second-leading scorer, got into foul trouble and was forced to sit out a large stretch of the second half. She was held to just seven points, no assists and turned the ball over four times.WVU had 21 turnovers in all.
“We were very well prepared,” said Quinerly, who scored 20 or more points for her third consecutive game. “We have great guards who are able to handle the ball against pressure. In my eyes, we were prepared. We just didn’t finish.”
West Virginia is off until next Saturday, when the Mountaineers host Oklahoma State.
