West Virginia rallies past slumping Arizona State

Treyson Eaglestaff fired in six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 23 points as visiting West Virginia erased a 13-point first-half deficit to earn a 75-63 Big 12 Conference win over Arizona State on Wednesday in Tempe.

Brenen Lorient added 15 points for the Mountaineers (13-6, 4-2) and Jasper Floyd contributed 12. West Virginia connected on 27 of 53 shots (50.9%) from the field, including 11 of 24 from the 3-point line, and outscored the Sun Devils 40-26 in the second half.

The Mountaineers won despite leading scorer Honor Huff (2 of 9 from the field) scoring only eight points, nine below his average.

Maurice Odom scored 17 points and dished out eight assists for Arizona State (10-9, 1-5) but it wasn't enough as the hosts lost their third straight and have dropped seven of their last eight.

Massamba Diop added 14 points and Noah Meeusen doubled his scoring average with 11 for the Sun Devils, who shot 47.1% from the field (24 of 51), including 5 of 15 from 3-point range.

West Virginia took the lead for good when Lorient canned a 3-pointer with 11:55 left, putting the visitors up 48-46 and starting a 7-0 burst. The Mountaineers pulled away in the last five minutes, expanding the margin to 14 in the last minute.

The pregame storyline centered around Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley's plea for his team to improve their defense. The Sun Devils entered the game allowing 95 points per game in conference games, including 103 on Sunday in a 30-point defeat at Houston.

For the first 12 minutes, the message got through. Arizona State ceded just 13 points and opened up a 13-point lead at the 8:25 mark when Andrija Grbovic knocked down a 3-pointer.

However, West Virginia worked its way back into contention as Eaglestaff, coming off a 22-point Saturday night in a 72-61 win over Colorado, drilled two 3-pointers in a 2 1/2-minute span to chop the deficit to 30-26.

The Mountaineers took momentum to halftime when Huff, who entered the game with 68 3-point makes -- second in Division I -- canned a 3-pointer just before the horn. That got the visitors within 37-35.

--Field Level Media