Caleb Love scored 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting to break out of a five-game shooting funk and lead Arizona to a 92-78 victory over Oklahoma State on Tuesday night in Big 12 play at Stillwater, Okla.
Trey Townsend added 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting to help the Wildcats (12-6, 6-1 Big 12) win for the eighth time in the past nine games. Jaden Bradley had 12 points for Arizona.
Marchelus Avery and Bryce Thompson scored 21 points apiece for Oklahoma State (10-8, 2-5), which lost for the fifth time in the past seven games. Abou Ousmane scored 14 points and Brandon Newman had 12 for the Cowboys.
Avery made a career-best five 3-pointers for Oklahoma State, which shot 46.3 percent from the field and was 10-for-23 from 3-point range.
Love made 4 of 9 3-point attempts and had three steals while reaching the 20-point mark for the sixth time this season. He averaged 10.8 points and shot 28.3 percent from the field over his previous five games.
Fourth-year coach Tommy Lloyd notched his 100th victory in 126 games for the Wildcats.
Arizona shot a stellar 56.1 percent from the field and was 10-for-25 from 3-point range.
The Wildcats led by five early in the second half before Love buried two 3-pointers in a span of 45 seconds to increase his team’s lead to 59-48 with 15:54 left in the game.
Love converted a three-point play with 13:15 left to make it 68-55. The Cowboys soon moved within nine before Arizona scored eight of the next 10 points and took a 76-61 advantage on Henri Veesaar’s three-point play with 8:44 remaining.
Love’s jumper made it 80-63 with 7:16 left, and Townsend’s trey made it 85-66 with 5:36 left. The lead topped out at 20 points as the Wildcats cruised to the finish.
Love scored 10 first-half points to help Arizona lead 43-39 at the break. Thompson had 11 in the first half for Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys led by six just over six minutes into the game. Love and Bradley then connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to start a 15-6 run as Arizona took a 25-22 lead with 7:06 remaining in the first half.
Thompson later scored back-to-back hoops to knot the score at 36 before the Wildcats finished the period strong. Bradley connected on a trey just before time expired to account for Arizona’s four-point halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
