Unwanted history: East Carolina beats Wichita State basketball for 1st time in AAC game

The Wichita State men’s basketball team made some unwanted history on New Years Eve.

For the first time since joining the American Athletic Conference in the 2017-18 season, the Shockers lost to East Carolina in a 79-69 defeat at Koch Arena on Saturday afternoon.

WSU had won its six previous meetings against the Pirates and was positioned to win again on Saturday, armed with an eight-point lead in the second half, but the Shockers once again failed to perform down the stretch.

It was a costly loss for Wichita State, which not only dropped to 7-7 on the season and 0-2 in AAC play, but botched its second-highest win probability game left on the schedule, according to KenPom.com. ECU picked up its first road win of the season and improved to 10-5 and 1-1 in conference play.

If leading WSU to an AAC championship in his first season as head coach was the high point of the Isaac Brown era, the 10-point loss to East Carolina at home on Saturday was one of the low points in his three-year tenure with the Shockers.

WSU failed to capitalize on a career game from 6-foot-11 sophomore center Kenny Pohto, who finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds — both career-highs in a game. Sophomore point guard Shammah Scott, who earned his second career start, also delivered a career-high 19 points for WSU.

After missing last game due to an ankle injury, WSU star point guard Craig Porter played 18 minutes off the bench in a clearly compromised state, as he managed to produce just two points on 1-of-4 shooting.

WSU shot 42.9% from the field and 37.5% on three-pointers, but its top-40 defense allowed ECU to carve up the Shockers to the tune of 1.30 points per possession and 44.6% shooting and 10 three-pointers.

The Shockers’ woes peaked during the ECU rally in the second half when Porter dribbled across halfcourt and then left a pass for Scott, who jumped from behind half-court to receive the pass and WSU was whistled for a turnover with no defensive pressure.

WSU wrestled momentum back with a 14-2 blitz in the first five minutes of the second half, flipping a four-point deficit to a 49-41 lead behind a flurry of layups and dunks from Jaron Pierre Jr. and Jaykwon Walton. But after Pierre flubbed a transition layup, ECU reeled off eight straight points to tie the game.

Every time the Shockers would deliver a highlight-reel play, such as the behind-the-back pass from Porter to Pohto for a slam, the Pirates managed to answer right back with a three-pointer.

After a Pohto dunk tied the game at 56-56 with 9 minutes, 37 seconds remaining, Jaden Walker quickly swished a triple and Brandon Johnson followed with another three during an 13-4 rally for ECU that opened up a 69-60 lead with 3:51 left.

With seven straight misses down the stretch, WSU once again failed to rally. The Shockers never looked more vulnerable than when ECU happily opened up a double-digit lead in front of the few thousand of WSU fans who remained to watch in stunned silence.

ECU had four scorers in double-figures with Brandon Johnson (17), Ezra Ausar (16), Javon Small (14) and R.J. Felton (13).

Both teams entered as poor outside shooting teams with combined 30% accuracy beyond the arc, not that you could tell in the first half when ECU and WSU combined to make 14 of 27 three-pointers.

Before Saturday, Scott, Pohto and Jalen Ricks were a combined 5 for 37 (14%) on three-pointers in the first 13 games of the season. In the first half on Saturday, the trio combined to drill 6 of 8 three-pointers (75%).

While the outside shots felt like they salvaged offense for WSU, they enhanced ECU’s offense from good to great. The Pirates registered by far the best first half of offense against WSU’s normally-stingy defense, as they scored 1.44 points per possession and finished with a 56.7 effective field-goal percentage.