Three takeaways from Wichita State basketball’s crisp 20-point home win over UTSA
This time, the double-digit lead was safe.
For the third straight game, the Wichita State men’s basketball team built a sizable lead in American Athletic Conference play. This time, the Shockers finished out the win.
WSU exerted its dominance on Wednesday to collect its second straight win at Koch Arena with an 84-64 victory over UTSA. The Shockers (10-13, 2-8 AAC) kicked off the second half of the league schedule in rousing fashion, while UTSA (8-15, 2-8 AAC) lost for the third straight time.
Here are three takeaways from the Shocker win:
Close to a complete game for Wichita State
Beating the No. 283-ranked KenPom team at home doesn’t sound too impressive, but UTSA has been feisty in conference play. The Roadrunners have knocked off Tulane at home and pushed Memphis and Florida Atlantic to overtime this season.
After building a 20-point halftime advantage, WSU pushed its lead out to as many as 26 points in the second half before a late flurry by UTSA against WSU’s backup unit.
Despite its lowly ranking, UTSA actually entered the game with the third-most efficient offense in conference play. But that potency never showed up in Wichita, as the Shockers generally made the Roadrunners uncomfortable on offense for the full 40 minutes.
“We’ve been able to play close, but playing people close ain’t getting it done,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said. “We’ve got to be able to win. There’s a big difference between playing teams close and winning. A lot of people can play teams close. So I thought the intensity required in order to win, specifically on defense, was better.”
UTSA was scoring better than 1.12 points per possession, averaging more than 80 points and converting 10 3-pointers per game in conference play, but the Shockers limited UTSA to its worst efficiency (0.88 points per possession) and 5-of-22 shooting on 3-pointers.
The two best players on UTSA struggled mightily, as leading scorer Jordan Ivy-Curry, who was averaging 18.8 points, was limited to five points on 1-of-10 shooting and point guard Christian Tucker, who was averaging 5.7 assists, finished with just one assist and six turnovers.
“Really, it was just knowing personnel,” WSU guard Harlond Beverly said. “We have a good group of (graduate assistants) who kind of mimic their game, so that really helped prepare us.”
Meanwhile, WSU logged its second most-efficient offensive outing in conference play with a tidy 1.18 points per possession on 44% shooting, seven 3-pointers and a perfect 15-for-15 performance from the foul line — the third-best 100% shooting performance from the foul line in program history.
Colby Rogers scored a game-high 18 points, Xavier Bell added 11 off the bench and Beverly played a strong all-around game with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal. The team also finished with 18 assists, the second-most this season, and just eight turnovers.
For a team that had just one conference win to its name, WSU’s 20-point victory over UTSA was a welcome change from the recent string of close losses. It is just the third team WSU has won in the past 10 weeks.
“To pull this one out the way that we did as a team, yeah, it feels pretty good,” Bell said.
Quincy Ballard continues his historic season for WSU basketball
In his first year in an expanded role, Quincy Ballard continues his historic pace at both ends of the court for the Shockers.
The 6-foot-11 junior center finished with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go along with six rebounds, two assists, three blocks and a steal in just 16 minutes on Wednesday.
Over the last 12 games, Ballard is shooting 77.4% (41-of-53) from the field to boost his season-long percentage to 70.6% — on pace to shatter the program’s single-season record of 61.6% set in the 1987-88 season by Steve Grayer. Ballard would rank first nationally, but his 4.4 attempts per game are too low to qualify (minimum of 5 attempts per game) for the leaderboard.
“He’s a star in his role,” Bell said about Ballard. “He knows what he needs to do and the coaching staff works with him and walks him through finishes around the rim. And I think that’s really helped him along the way.”
At the other end, Ballard entered Wednesday ranked 15th nationally in total blocks and 16th in block rate, swatting better than 10% of opponent 2-point field goals when he’s on the floor.
With three more blocks against UTSA, Ballard (53) moved into ninth place on WSU’s all-time blocks list for a single season. With at least nine games left on WSU’s schedule, Ballard could challenge the 62-year-old program record of 80 blocks held by Gene Wiley from the 1961-62 season. The second-most in WSU history is 69 blocks by Robert Elmore from 1976-77.
Near-perfect first half by the Shockers
Wichita State was dominant from the opening to final whistle in the first half, building a 44-24 halftime advantage — its largest first-half lead against a Div. I opponent this season.
The offense was fast-paced and efficient, shooting 47% from the field, producing 12 layups and dunks and 11 assists on 18 field goals to pump out 1.22 points per possession.
“We just tried to stack possessions,” Bell said. “Get a stop on defense, then try to get the best shots we can on offense. We were moving the ball, sharing the ball and pushing in transition and playing together as a team.”
But the highlight was the defense, which held a potent UTSA offense to 32% shooting, 2-of-11 accuracy on 3-pointers and a lowly 0.69 points per possession.
WSU made its first seven shots of the game to open up a 15-7 lead before the first media timeout, then steadily increased its lead for the final 15 minutes. A 7-0 spurt, capped by a Colby Rogers triple, staked WSU to a 17-point lead midway through the first half, then Harlond Beverly finished a transition layup just before halftime for a 20-point lead.
“We were connected out there,” Beverly said.
“I feel like it’s a good step toward (progress), but I feel like we can continue to get better. We did a lot of things right today, but we can still improve and we can dominate the simple even better than we did today.”
Odds and ends about Wichita State basketball
In its last three games, WSU has led for 106 of 120 total minutes — but Wednesday was the first time WSU has finished out the victory. After leading for more than 30 minutes at Tulsa and nearly 38 minutes at Memphis, the Shockers again led for nearly 38 minutes against UTSA.
The Shockers have won all six times they have finished with at least 15 assists in a game this season. WSU registered 18 assists on 31 made baskets against UTSA, second-most by the team this season.
Colby Rogers has made a 3-pointer in all 23 games this season and multiple in 18 of them. That streak is the sixth-longest in program history, as Rogers currently leads the conference in 3s per game (2.74), total 3s (63) and 3-point percentage (39.6%). He finished 2-for-6 beyond the arc against UTSA.
Harlond Beverly has scored in double-digits five of the last six games, averaging 13.7 points on 48% shooting, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals during that span. He logged 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal against the Roadrunners.
For the first time this season, WSU featured a row of 10 seats for fans to sit along the baseline. According to a WSU spokesperson, it was an experiment by WSU to give select fans a unique vantage point and attempt to increase revenue.
Wednesday’s game was just the third all-time meeting between the Shockers and Roadrunners, as WSU has won each time. The series started in 1998 when Maurice Evans and Jason Perez combined for 44 points to power WSU to an 82-73 win at Levitt Arena, then Randy Burns scored 15 points to help lead the Shockers to an 84-79 win in 2004.
WSU senior center Jacob Germany faced his former squad on Wednesday. He played four seasons in San Antonio and finished ninth in program history with 1,293 points and fourth all-time in rebounds with 531 boards. Germany made his first appearance in a game since Dec. 30, grabbing two rebounds in eight minutes off the bench on Wednesday.
UTSA head coach Steve Henson, who is in his eighth year, graduated from McPherson High and is a former star player at Kansas State. He still holds the Wildcats’ program record in multiple categories, including career assists (582), starts (118), minutes played (4,474) and free throw percentage (90%).
WSU hosted its seventh annual Fight for Literacy game, which is why coaches wore green pins to help raise awareness and funds for local reading programs through United Way of the Plains.
