SWAC’s Alcorn State stuns Wichita State basketball with upset win at Koch Arena

The Wichita State men’s basketball coaching staff tried to warn the players about the dangers of taking a SWAC opponent lightly after Grambling State stunned Colorado on Friday night.

The Shockers learned the lesson the hard way on Saturday, as the 17.5-point favorites became the latest victims on their home court in a 66-57 upset loss to Alcorn State at Koch Arena.

Alcorn State entered the game rated the No. 327 team in the country by KenPom.com and left Wichita with one of the most significant non-conference victories in program history — and a $70,000 check on the way from the Shockers for playing in Saturday’s game.

In what is unquestionably the worst home loss in at least the last two decades, the Shockers shot a miserable 17% on three-pointers (4 of 24), missed five of 14 free throws, lost the rebounding battle to a significantly smaller team and committed 12 turnovers with many coming in excruciating fashion.

Outside of a 14-0 run during a five-minute span late in the first half, the Shockers were thoroughly dominated by their foes from the SWAC, which was the lowest-rated of the 32 conferences in America last season. Alcorn State outscored Wichita State by 23 points, 66-43, in the other 35 minutes of the game.

Afterward, the players admitted the team had three poor practices in a row leading up to Saturday’s game. It was obvious after the fact that the funk extended over to Saturday’s game, as WSU committed six turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game and fell behind by as many as 10 points early on its homecourt.

It was assumed the Shockers would at some point snap out of their funk and recover in time to push for a 20-point victory. And that appeared to be happening when Kenny Pohto, WSU’s 6-foot-11 sophomore center, scored nine points to spur a 14-0 rally late in the first half to stake WSU to a five-point lead.

But that stretch proved to be an aberration, not a return to form.

The half-filled Koch Arena crowd, with an announced attendance of 8,515, watched in stunned silence as the Shockers not only failed to extend their lead coming out of halftime, but failed to protect it. A 7-0 rally by the Braves put Alcorn State back in front, 37-36, by the first media timeout of the second half.

Even with how poorly WSU had played, the Shockers still appeared to be in prime position to pull away for the victory halfway through the second half with a 46-41 lead. But then strange things started happening at Koch Arena.

WSU fouled a three-point shooter. Then the Shockers failed to box out and gave up an offensive put-back score. Then the Braves banked in two straight jump shots from straight on, while WSU air-balled a jumper at the other end.

All of a sudden, WSU trailed 50-46 entering the final seven minutes of the game.

Before Saturday, WSU was 50-2 in November games played at Koch Arena in the last two decades. And it was clear the crowd kept expecting a late Shocker rally until a sense of impending doom took over, as WSU kept clanking away with its shots and Alcorn State kept delivering clutch baskets at the end of the shot clock.

The dagger appeared to be a Byron Joshua jumper to put Alcorn State ahead 59-51 with 2:48 remaining, although the Shockers still had their chances to make things interesting. Jaykwon Walton (12 points) had an open three-pointer that would have trimmed the deficit to three points with more than 60 seconds left, while Xavier Bell appeared to come up with a steal at midcourt to give WSU another opportunity, only for the ball to be poked away immediately, giving the Braves a new shot clock.

It probably wasn’t a coincidence WSU’s poor performance coincided with an uncharacteristically sloppy game from Porter, who still finished with nine points, nine rebounds and three assists but shot just 36% from the field and committed five turnovers.

The Shockers (1-1) will have three practices to prepare for their first road game of the 2022-23 season, when WSU travels to Richmond (2-0) to take on a 2022 NCAA Tournament team at 6 p.m. Central time on Thursday, Nov. 17, on ESPN+.