Wichita State women’s basketball becomes first team in AAC tournament history to beat No. 1

Wichita State became the first team in the history of the American Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament to defeat the No. 1 seed on Tuesday.

The biggest win of the Keitha Adams era was about as thorough as they come, as the Shockers led regular-season champion South Florida wire-and-wire in a 65-53 win at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament.

The top seed in the AAC tournament had been 27-0 in the first nine years of the event until WSU stunned the NCAA tournament-bound Bulls.

“Our team just played extremely hard and all of our kids played with a lot of passion,” Adams said. “We were on the floor for every loose ball and I’ve been telling them when we take good care of the basketball and we rebound, I like our team. Our team is really good when we do those two things.

“We just played hard and we played with a lot of passion. It’s March time.”

WSU snapped a seven-game losing streak against USF, which had completed a dominant 15-1 conference season to win the AAC title, and won its second game in a conference tournament for the first time since 2015, when the Shockers won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

The Shockers (18-13) will play Houston (13-15) in the AAC tournament semifinals at 4 p.m. Wednesday. A win would not only send WSU through to the finals, but set up a Shocker doubleheader at Dickies Arena on Thursday, with the men’s team playing its first-round game at 6 p.m. followed by the women’s team potentially in the 8 p.m. championship game.

WSU lost its only meeting against Houston, 62-55, in the regular-season finale on March 1.

“This thing is a marathon and our conference is so good and it’s very talented,” Adams said. “I’m just really trying to remind our players about being angry, being mad. Coming out of the locker room and flipping that switch and being intense.”

That was certainly the case on Tuesday afternoon when WSU scored the first eight points of the game to land the first momentum swing of the game.

The Bulls never found their rhythm in their first game in Fort Worth, shooting a tick under 26% in the first half. Meanwhile, the Shockers shot 50% and extended their halftime advantage to 32-20.

“Give Wichita State a lot of credit,” USF coach Jose Fernandez said. “They played well. They made shots. They defended. They played with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.”

Every champion has at least one run in them and USF showed its resilience out of halftime, reeling off an 11-0 run to trim WSU’s lead to 35-33.

For most underdogs, that would be the time of the game where the upset bid falls apart. But not the Shockers.

The unlikely hero was senior Curtessia Dean, who finished with zero points in WSU’s first game in Fort Worth but scored nine straights points in response to USF’s rally to stabilize the Shockers.

“It means a lot knowing I’m a big part of the offense,” said Dean, who finished with 14 points. “This game I knew I had to step up in order to get to where I want to go after I get done playing, knowing it’s my last conference game.”

Dean erupted with a 3-pointer to kick off the run, then made a driving layup and two straight mid-range jumpers to extend WSU’s lead to 44-35 with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter. Crisis averted.

“What you saw today, that’s (Dean),” Adams said. “We believe in her. She hit some big shots and I kept going back to her. I kept dialing her up and she did exactly what I’ve seen her do when we recruited her.”

The fourth quarter was even more impressive by the Shockers. Instead of a late push by USF to make a furious rally at the lead one more time, WSU’s lead steadily grew.

After D.J. McCarty drilled a 3-pointer for a 51-40 lead with 8:58 remaining in the game, WSU’s lead never dipped from double-digits the rest of the game. McCarty finished with eight points and five assists, while junior center Jane Asinde finished with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds.

Adams was particularly pleased with the team’s defense on USF star Sammie Puisis, who scored 26 points against the Shockers in Wichita but was held to two points on 0-for-10 shooting on Tuesday.

“I told our team, ‘You need to get her off the 3-point line, you need her shooting 2s and not 3s because she’s so good at it,’” Adams said. “I kept telling our team, ‘Whoever is guarding (Puisis), she needs to be able to smell what you ate for breakfast this morning.’”