Yahoo Movies K-State Wildcats basketball wins bragging rights, pulling away late from Wichita State
For the last decade now, the Wichita State men’s basketball program has been wanting a crack at either of its in-state Big 12 rivals.
The Shockers finally received their wish on Sunday evening and it’s hard to categorize their 65-59 loss to Kansas State as anything other than a missed opportunity in front of a near sell-out crowd of 14,488 at Intrust Bank Arena.
Because WSU was unable to capitalize on an early 12-point lead against a K-State team that was missing its leading scorer in Nijel Pack (concussion), another year will pass before the Shockers (6-2) can claim bragging rights over K-State (5-2) in a trip to Bramlage Coliseum next season.
“I want to apologize to Shocker Nation and the fans for coming up short,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said.
“We definitely blew an opportunity, but there’s going to be more games.”
Wichita State has leaned on its defense and timely shot-making to overcome poor shooting and turnovers to win close games this season. But good defense can only take a team so far. At some point, WSU’s offense had to deliver and when it didn’t on Sunday, the Shockers were finally burned by their offensive troubles.
Outside of Morris Udeze, the junior center who scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the first half, WSU’s offense was as bad as its been the entire season. WSU shot 35% from the field, bolstered by Udeze’s 7-of-8 performance. Take that away and the rest of the Shockers shot 26% on 46 shots, including a 5-for-23 performance (22%) on three-pointers.
Too many times possessions ended with a contested jump shot, most of which were taken by WSU star Tyson Etienne, whose early-season shooting woes continued with a 4-for-20 performance from the field. It took him 20 shots to score 11 points, numbers that were usually flipped last season when he earned Co-Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference.
“We didn’t do a good job on offense tonight and a lot of that was on me,” Brown said. “I should have got the ball inside more. We should have tried to execute more. I felt like tonight we just took tough shots and when you take tough shots, this is what happens. We’ll learn from it.”
Even with a seven-minute-long scoring drought in the middle of the second half, WSU’s defense gave the Shockers a chance down the stretch. The score was tied at 54 entering the final two minutes of regulation after WSU freshman Ricky Council (five points) canned a game-tying three-pointer.
But the game swung when K-State transfer guard Markquis Nowell (team-high 16 points) drilled a 26-footer way behind the three-point line to break the tie, sending WSU into a tailspin. Etienne missed a jumper, then Qua Grant and Council turned the ball over for three straight empty possessions that turned a close game into an eight-point deficit with 39 seconds left.
A K-State turnover and two missed free throws in the final 30 seconds briefly gave WSU hope, as the Shockers cut the deficit to four points and had the ball with a chance to come closer but Etienne missed a deep three with 15 seconds left. Nowell grabbed the rebound and iced K-State’s first win over WSU since 2003 at the free throw line.
“They don’t quit,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said of WSU. “All the coaches we talked to and the games we watched, they find ways to win. I kept yelling at my guys it’s not over because I’ve seen them. When they seem like they were dead, they found ways to win.”
In many of those instances, WSU forced turnovers and scored second-chance points to remain afloat. It’s probably not a coincidence WSU lost the game where it forced its fewest turnovers (seven) and grabbed its fewest offensive rebounds (six).
And the Shockers once again struggled in transition, scoring just three points in 10 possessions with four ending in turnovers — two that went the other way for easy K-State scores. WSU finished the game with 14 turnovers.
“Our struggles are when we turn it over,” Brown said. “We’re trying to force it. In this game against K-State, we wanted to drive to make two guys guard us and then kick. I felt like we drove sometimes and took on two guys and it cost us tonight.
“They did a good job of checking out, too. I don’t know, for some reason, we didn’t have that energy tonight on the glass. Give them a lot of credit. They did a great job.”
WSU led by 12 in the first eight minutes of the game, but K-State rallied to take a 32-20 halftime lead. Another strong start to the half for the Shockers, where they outscored KSU 14-5 in the first six minutes of the second half, restored their lead to 44-37 with 14:39 remaining on a basket by Udeze.
But for the final 14 minutes, Udeze only scored one point (on a free throw) and did not take a single field goal attempt.
“I felt like we got sped up on the offensive end,” Udeze said. “We didn’t take our time. I give all credit to their defense. They did a good job.”
“I think in the first half we played inside-out and that’s why we got off to a good start by playing through the big fella and letting him do his thing,” WSU junior Dexter Dennis said. “The second half we did force a lot of contested shots, which are harder to make. I felt like we got away from what was allowing us to win the game.”
Brown did not know the severity of the injury that forced WSU junior point guard Craig Porter to miss the final 7:47 of the game. Porter limped off the court after landing on his left knee hard. Brown said x-rays should determine what comes next for WSU’s starting point guard.
The good news is that WSU has five days off before its next game, at home against Norfolk State at Koch Arena on Saturday.
That bad news is that the Shockers failed to capitalize on the opportunity to end their challenging five-game stretch in non-conference play with a 4-1 record, following back-to-back road wins at Missouri State and Oklahoma State. WSU will have to wait until March to find out if the home loss to K-State will count as a Quadrant 2 (if KSU finishes in the top-75 of the NET) or as a Quadrant 3 loss.
Worrying about that won’t do the players any good. After the tough loss, they were focused on keeping spirits high.
“Right now my mindset is being positive, but also looking ourselves in the mirror and asking yourself what can we do better to help this team win ball games,” Dennis said. “I think we’re all positive guys. We all work hard. I think our hearts are in the right place. I love this team, man. I wouldn’t change anything about it. But we definitely got to get better and we’ve got a week to do that.”
