Little mistakes in the Battle 4 Atlantis exposed Wichita State’s men’s basketball team, which dropped all three games by an average of 5.33 points.
In each matchup, the Shockers were two possessions away from securing a resume-boosting Quad 1 or Quad 2 win, leaving the team frustrated but determined to grow from the results.
“You have to get exposed like that,” head coach Paul Mills said. “You have to understand how teams are defending you in order to make sure this is not happening in February.”
Back in practice this week ahead of facing NAIA Division II Mount Marty, the message was simple: learn from the mistakes, then let them go.
“We’re not hanging our heads on that,” junior guard Dre Kindell said. “We’re just moving forward. We got 20-something more games left. That’s really what we’re looking forward to.”
WSU took a small step forward Tuesday evening, rolling past the Lancers 95-69. And although the Shockers (5-4) snapped their three-game skid in the Bahamas, it took a bit to pull away.
Mills said he experimented with a formation for around 15 minutes of the first half but wasn’t pleased with how the execution went. He described it as an attempt to get WSU more involved offensively when teams try to take senior guard Kenyon Giles out of the game.
“It’s a formation in order to get everybody away from the ball and see if we can’t utilize the physicality of our bigs to get something for them or somebody going downhill,” Mills said.
After scrapping the formation, the Shockers upped their cushion to 12 points several times — 36-24, 40-28 and 43-31 — in the closing stretch of the half, but the Lancers (3-7) cut it to single-digits at the buzzer.
Mount Marty’s senior guard Jake Jensen heaved a 55-foot shot, drained it, then threw an imaginary grenade into the crowd and covered his ears as he jogged to the visitor’s locker room. Jensen finished with 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting.
Although it was nothing personal, senior guard Mike Gray Jr. answered immediately to start the second half. He knocked down four 3-pointers within the first four minutes of the period and finished with a game-high 18 points — all of his makes were from beyond the arc or at the free throw line.
“It didn’t really spark anything for us,” he said. “But just knowing that it can be anybody’s night — they could be on, they could be hot, shots from halfcourt can be going in. We just have to make sure that we stay level and stay by our principles.”
The spurt from Gray upped WSU’s cushion to 17 points, and from there, the biggest drama was seeing what the final margin-of-victory would be. An 8-0 run later made it 76-50, and a sophomore guard Brian Amuneke three pushed it to 28. Mount Marty never got within 20 points the rest of the way.
WSU shot 35-of-57 for the game, good for a season-best 61.4%. The Shockers also hit 12-of-24 threes, their second time shooting 50% from beyond the arc this season. They outrebounded the Lancers 40-19, underscoring a dominant night on the glass.
Whether Tuesday’s performance, combined with last week’s struggles, becomes a turning point will be clearer soon. The Shockers visit old Missouri Valley Conference foe Northern Iowa on Saturday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, a chance to show that the lessons from the Bahamas are starting to take hold.
“It’s understanding the value of every possession as we go into this Northern Iowa game,” Mills said.
Box score breakdown
WSU – 43; 52 – 95
MMU – 34; 35 – 69
Shooting totals (fg-3p-ft)
WSU (61.4% – 50% – 81.3%)
UWM (43.3% – 36.7% – 85.7%)
Leaders
Points — WSU: Mike Gray Jr. (18), Dre Kindell (13), Brian Amuneke (11). MMU: Jake Jensen (17), Tyler Sandoval (13), Damon Opdahl (12).
Rebounds — WSU: Will Berg (12), Noah Hill (5), Emmanuel Okorafor (5). MMU: Jake Jensen (4), Sutton Arend (4), Damon Opdahl (2).
Assists — WSU: Dre Kindell (6), Kenyon Giles (3), Jaret Valencia (2). MMU: Eli Olson (8), Damon Opdahl (3), Rugby Ryken (2).
