A lot of unknowns surrounded Wichita State’s men’s basketball team in its season opener.
The Shockers’ starting five — and the whole team, practically — was made up of players who’d never weathered a season in Koch Arena or under third-year coach Paul Mills.
Inexperience together showed early Tuesday evening against UNC Asheville. Wichita State toyed with lineups on the court, went on offensive lulls during stretches and broke down on defense at times, which led to easy buckets for the Bulldogs.
The Shockers ended the first half by giving up 20 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass, and turned the ball over five times. On a few occasions, they ran down the shot clock for desperation heaves.
“We gave up too many rebounds in the first half,” senior guard Kenyon Giles said post game. “That’s not who we are. We’re going to be one of the best teams in the country at rebounding.”
It wasn’t until there were under four minutes left in the game that they took control. During that time, Wichita State (1-0) went on a 15-2 run to close out the win against UNC Asheville (0-1), 75-58.
“Guys understand that we need to shoot it (with) more than one (second) on the shot clock,” Mills said. “I thought there was way too much — the basketball being dribbled, and the ball wasn’t moving.”
At the 15:24-mark of the first half, junior guard Dre Kindell came off the bench and provided a much needed spark on both ends of the court. Within 20 seconds of entering the game, he scored on a crafty move to get by his defender for an easy layup.
Kindell, listed at 5-foot-11 and 168 pounds, played tenacious defense for 94 feet and knew when and where to make the right passes. He ended the game with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting. More importantly, he made five assists to a single turnover.
“I thought Dre was the spark plug,” Mills said. “You could tell a big difference when he came in and the ball started moving. I thought there was energy with the ball.”
Wichita State opened up a nine-point lead a few times in the second half — 48-39, 50-41, 53-44 — but it never fully pulled away from the Bulldogs until that 15-2 onslaught.
Giles, who scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, scored his final five during the run. A pair of free throws and a layup with 26 seconds left from Kindell sealed it.
“That’s a hard team to beat,” Giles said. “So I already knew it was going to take a lot for us to get a lead like that. To win by double-digits like that, it just shows that we prevailed.”
Overall, and aside from the game-sealing run, rebounding was the biggest differentiator between the two halves. The Shockers were plus-one in the rebounding margin at the end of the first 20 minutes but managed to pull down 14 more boards during the second.
“I feel like it was just the energy and effort,” senior forward Karon Boyd said. Boyd, the Southern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year a season ago at East Tennessee State, scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
“It was our goal that no one got punked on the glass, if we were going on the defensive glass, offensive. And rebounding wins championships, I always say that.”
Wichita State stays in the confines of Koch Arena for its next game against Prairie View A&M. Tipoff is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m.
Box score breakdown
1H 2H T
WSU 34 41 75
UNCA 30 28 58
Shooting totals (fg-3p-ft)
WSU (45.6% – 25.0% – 60.0%)
UNCA (41.1% – 26.7% – 61.5%)
Leaders
Points — WSU: Kenyon Giles (20), Dre Kindell (11), Karon Boyd (11). UNCA: Toyaz Solomon (14), DJ Patrick (13), Kameron Taylor (9).
Assists — WSU: Dre Kindell (5), Kenyon Giles (2), Will Berg (2). UNCA: Kameron Taylor (2), Sage Tolentino (1).
Rebounds — WSU: Karon Boyd (10), Will Berg (8), Dillon Battie (8). UNCA: Toyaz Solomon (7), Sage Tolentino (5), Myles Mayfield (4).
