West Virginia got 26 points from Tucker DeVries to outlast 24^th-ranked Arizona 83-76 in overtime in the third-place game at this year's Bad Boys Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis at Atlantis Resort Imperial Arena in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
 
It was the third-straight overtime game for WVU, which outlasted third-ranked Gonzaga two days ago and then lost to Louisville yesterday.
 
"I've been doing this 27 years now as a coach, and I don't know that I've had a group of three games like this where I've been more impressed and more proud of a group of men who showed incredible fight, resolve and toughness," West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said. "Maybe even more importantly, togetherness. They just refused to quit."
 
It is believed to be the first time in school history West Virginia has ever played three consecutive overtime games.
 
Today, DeVries was virtually unstoppable at times, particularly from behind the 3-point arc where he made 8 of 12, including a couple of just in front of the mid-court line. DeVries had 17 points at halftime to give WVU a 39-37 lead at intermission.
 
"We had to get (Tucker) going to provide us that other scoring option," DeVries said. "We weren't getting him enough clean looks and he was kind of forgotten about in our offense and he was coming off some staggers and getting some movement, plus, he created some opportunities for other people."
 
WVU, down backup big Eduaro Andre following his injury yesterday against Louisville and still without Jayden Stone, had to go one player deeper on its bench with senior forward Haris Elezovic getting his first meaningful minutes of the season. Elezovic didn't score, but he 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 unbelievable job of rallying around each other (today) to find a way to come out with another overtime win."
 
The Mountaineers (5-2) appeared to have control of the game with less than four minutes left after Javon Small's two free throws gave them a 63-56 lead, but empty possessions allowed the Wildcats to battle back.
 
KJ Lewis converted a traditional three-point play to cut West Virginia's lead to four, and 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 left, but that was WVU's last field goal during regulation.
 
Trey Townsend converted a layup with 47 seconds left and Caleb Love banged in a transition 3 with 14 seconds left to tie the game.
 
Following a West Virginia timeout, Tucker DeVries was unable to get his shot inside the free throw line to go down to win the game.
 
In overtime, Amani Hansberry got things going with a jumper and then DeVries hit another 3 to give WVU a 71-66 lead. The margin swelled to eight on two Small free throws with 1:32 left and again got to eight on two more Small charities with 27 seconds to go.
 
"I thought the guys did an incredible job coming into the overtime," DeVries said. "We got back into some movement and like I told our guys: I'm still learning how to play with them at the end of games and we got a little too iso happy. 
 
"We were trying to match up late and we didn't get great possessions there, so we wanted to get back to what was getting us some success by getting back to more of our off-ball movement and got them chasing us a little bit," DeVries said.

WVU won today's game despite being out-shot 45.3% to 39.7% and being out-scored 38 to 20 in the paint.
 
The Mountaineers made up for it with a 24 to 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 had a 40 to 39 edge 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 face 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 on to WVUGAME.com.