There are a few different words you could use to describe the WVU basketball offensive effort on Saturday afternoon as they traveled to Tucson for a showdown with No. 1 Arizona – inefficient certainly pops to mind, but perhaps the best word to use is ugly.
Neither term is really incorrect when applied to WVU's effort against the Wildcats, as the Mountaineers stumbled out of the gate and never recovered offensively as the top-ranked, undefeated hosts kept their perfect record alive and handed West Virginia a demoralizing 88-53 loss – the largest margin of defeat the Mountaineers have suffered all season.
Arizona Wildcats Pummel West Virginia Mountaineers In Worse Loss of Season For Ross Hodge's Squad
Now, some of the blowout loss is attributable to Arizona's offensive performance, which was nothing short of explosive. The Wildcats shot 52.5 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three-point range for the duration of the game, scoring on 61.9% of their 63 offensive possessions while turning the ball over just five times.
But it takes two partners to tango, and WVU's offense did no favors in combatting a hot game for the Wildcats. The Mountaineers opened the game shooting a disheartening 10-of-34 from the field in the first half (29.4 percent), and an even worse 3-of-15 from behind-the-arc (20 percent), as the Wildcats raced out to an early 20-point lead at the halftime break that they would never look back from.
The second half saw slightly better shooting, but nowhere near good enough – by the end of the contest, the Mountaineers would shooting just 34.4 percent from field goal ranges and 27.3 percent from three-point range, with just six made three-pointers on the game. The Mountaineers scored on just 35.8 percent of their 67 possessions, and turned the ball over 11 times.
"Arizona had a lot to do with that. Their collective size and physicality around the basket...it negates your interior attack. It's hard to get the ball to the basket, and you got to finish through contact. You need some special performances from key people to win games in this environment, but we didn't get that like they have before," WVU head coach Ross Hodge said after the game.
"We weren't getting enough buckets during the times when we were getting stops. We had some open looks at the beginning of the game, and you got to make those if you want to beat the No. 1 team in the country."