The bass was bumpin’ from inside the home team’s locker room. Maybe more than usual.

The reverb rattled through the walls nearby it at Koch Arena. Saturday was a good reason to celebrate — loudly.

Wichita State had just pulled off an 81-77 come-from-behind victory in a Roundhouse rematch with Tulsa, earning its 16th win of the season and moving a game-and-a-half back from first place in the American Conference standings. 

The Shockers led for 2 minutes, 54 seconds, the entire contest. Turns out, that’s all they needed. A crunch-time surge, 16-7 run over the last seven minutes and a rambunctious crowd sealed the outcome.

Senior guard Kenyon Giles hit a pair of free throws that gave WSU the lead for good. Senior forward Karon Boyd rose for a game-defining block on Tulsa guard Tylen Riley. Junior center Will Berg and Boyd secured multiple defensive rebounds with under 30 seconds left on the clock to prevent any extra chances for the Golden Hurricane.

“It was really a team win,” coach Paul Mills said after the game. “Most importantly, I thought it was a community win. The Wichita State community was phenomenal. They were present there at the end. 

“Tulsa was 1-for-8 there late, and really attribute some of that to who our people are and how much they support basketball.”

For a season-high 7,569 fans at the game, it sometimes felt like Koch Arena was full. Tulsa was met with deafening roars down the stretch that shrank the away team’s half of the court. Communication was rendered obsolete. 

When the Shockers made a big play, the crowd made sure the Golden Hurricane knew about it.

“It was lovely, man, the crowd going crazy from the jump,” Giles said. “Then we went on that run. That’s why I was like, ‘It was ours,’ because the crowd got into it.

“I feel like it helped our play. I really appreciate the fans for coming out today.”

Understanding the final five minutes

To understand the magnitude of WSU’s win, you have to go back to what happened before there were 5 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the second half.

The first stanza was a track meet. The Shockers played from behind for all but 12 seconds, and Tulsa fired at will by sinking 50% of their field goals. 

Giles gave WSU its 10-9 lead at the 16:12 mark before Miles Barnstable erased it with the game’s first three, minus a trio of free throws the Golden Hurricane guard made when he was fouled beyond the arc a little earlier. Tulsa went up by six by halftime after guard Jaylen Lawal scored five unanswered in the last minute, 41-35. 

Senior standouts for Tulsa, Riley (21 points, four rebounds, one turnover) and forward David Green (10 points, three rebounds, four fouls), helped keep an early nine-point second-half cushion intact six minutes into the period.

But early foul trouble for the Shockers — seven fouls within 10 minutes of game time — was tamed, and they eventually drew more. The Golden Hurricane committed 22 total fouls to WSU’s 16.

Momentum flipped, and Tulsa’s lead was cut to one multiple times — 62-61, 64-63, 66-65 —  before the Shockers could get over the hump. The crowd could sense it and grew louder with every shot and stop.

The Golden Hurricane stretched their lead to 70-65 before a 5-0 run over two minutes knotted the scoreboard. Five minutes, 28 seconds were on the clock.

After more kicking, scratching and roars around the arena, Giles finally gave WSU the lead with under three minutes to go, 76-75. His free throws gave the Shockers the lead for good.

“We’ve been in this position before,” Giles said. “We just say, ‘Keep fighting. Keep fighting. Keep chipping away at it.’ And when we tied the ball game, we knew this was ours (to win).”

Tulsa made two of its last 12 shots over the course of seven minutes. WSU made five of its 10 during that same amount of time. The Shockers dominated in the paint all game and wore down Tulsa with 52 points down low and 12 on second-chance looks.

“I felt like if this thing goes to the 10th round, the last media, we will find a way,” Mills said. “I’ve told the guys, we’ve always responded all year. This won’t be any different.

“I knew how desperate they (Tulsa) were, having dropped their last two. I just knew it was going to be a good game. 

“What put us over the top was Shocker Nation.”

Boyd found WSU’s last two buckets during the surging screams and made a defensive stand that defined the outcome.

Karon Boyd’s two-day turnaround

Boyd had one of his most lackluster performances of the season in the most recent loss to South Florida: 38 minutes, one rebound. That’s it. 

And it was hard to shake.

“He’s probably heard about it 50 times in the last 48 hours,” Mills joked. “He got a rebound in practice (Friday), and I said, ‘That’s your second rebound in 48 hours.’ You can tell he was amped to prove himself.”

It took Boyd a while to put last Wednesday’s performance behind him. The game was trending for a repeat at the break: 0-for-2 from the floor, two rebounds, turnovers and fouls. But when the Shockers needed him the most down the stretch, Boyd delivered.

“Karon’s an even-keeled guy,” Giles said. “You can notice it in the huddles. Even at halftime, he never felt startled. He never felt worried. 

“Even coming off of the last game, going into practice, he didn’t act any different. I already know when the moment comes, Karon’s going to show up. Which he did.

“He lets go of the past, and he worries about the now. You saw it here tonight.”

The now for Boyd looked like six rebounds throughout the second half, and the last five points the Shockers scored. But those weren’t just the biggest plays he made. His defense stole the show.

WSU just went up 80-77, and Tulsa’s coach Eric Konkol called a timeout with 35 seconds remaining. Riley received a pass and took Boyd one-on-one. But Boyd, the Southern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year a season ago at East Tennessee State, knew what Riley wanted to do.

He hugged Riley’s right side, perfectly timed his fadeaway, and swatted the ball to the delight of everyone in the crowd, not in blue and gold. Boyd had four fouls when he rejected it — one more and he’d have fouled out.

“As soon as I saw him rise for the shot, I had to jump and contest,” Boyd said. “It was all about giving him the best contest without fouling.”

In just two days, Boyd went from one of his roughest outings to the hero WSU needed.

Kenyon Giles scores game-high 31 on 12 two’s

While Boyd sealed the game, Giles poured in a game-high 31 points on 13-of-27 shooting throughout it. 

Just one of those shots was made beyond the arc. He finished 1-for-7 from deep, but found other ways to score in the paint and mid-range. Giles went 4-for-4 at the foul line, and all his free throws were in the second half.

He started early and often with three makes in the game’s first four minutes. Midway through the second half, he scored seven in a row for the Shockers to keep them within two possessions.

A shot over three pairs of outstretched Golden Hurricane arms tied the game again at 72 and sent the 7,569 in the stands into a frenzy. His next two free throws broke WSU through, 76-75.

Giles credited Berg and fellow center Emmanuel Okorafor for being able to clear space down low for the 5-foot-10 scoring dynamo to operate. Some helpful words from them have been said along the way.

“Will and EMan will always talk about, ‘Hey KG, when you drive, don’t try to float it. Go all the way to the rim,’” Giles said. “It really showed tonight. I had to do a better job of getting downhill.”

The 31 points served as a minor form of revenge, too.

At the Reynolds Center on Feb. 1 against Tulsa, Riley dropped a career-high 30 points and did it on just 9-of-11 shooting. Eleven of his points that game came at the stripe.

“I wasn’t really thinking about that,” Giles said. “I was being aggressive for my team. I understand that to have a good shot, I have to be really aggressive. I don’t get into matchups, really.”

The game didn’t just hang on Giles’ game-high and Boyd’s late-game heroics, however. WSU won in the margins in more ways than one.

Where the margins teetered

The first time around against Tulsa, the Shockers lost the battle of the boards for only the third time all season 38-29. That was mostly because there were just 24 opportunities to grab one on the defensive end; the Golden Hurricane shot 33-for-55 that game.

WSU won the rebounding margin 41-35 Saturday, including a plus-4 mark on the offensive glass and a plus-2 mark on the defensive glass.

Part of the turnaround from two weeks ago was an increased physicality the Shockers played with in the rematch. The loss to South Florida was another reminder to bring that brand of basketball.

“There’s a resolve that you have to make, like that cannot happen again,” Mills said. “We don’t expect you to win every fight. We do expect you to fight in every fight. I didn’t think the fight was what it needed to be (against USF), but I thought tonight it was.

“Our physicality is what allowed that to happen. If you look at Will, the nine fouls drawn, it’s kind of a testament to that.”

That punch even showed up down low, as WSU doubled Tulsa’s points in the paint. 

“What I really liked about this game is one, we were able to outrebound them by six,” Mills said. “Two, you can play a game where you only shoot 14% from three and still win. When we dominate paint points and defend without fouling, we have an opportunity.”

And for the Shockers, it all goes back to the crowd that Koch Arena creates.

“They’re a big part of that momentum swing, just them being able to give us that extra kick,” Berg said. “That helped us defensively. Most of the time, they don’t even know what they’re running because the crowd is so into it. And it’s hard to be tired when the whole arena is rocking for you.”

Giles went off for 31. Boyd sealed the game with clutch shots and tough defense. The crowd fueled WSU’s gut-punch in an all-around team effort that was a reminder of why the Roundhouse is special when it’s rockin’. 

The sound had moved from the stands to the team’s inner sanctum, where the bass from the victory celebration continued to rattle the walls of Koch Arena.

And in a season defined by narrow margins, the come-from-behind victory over Tulsa wasn’t just win No. 16. It was a statement that the fight, and the noise, had returned to Wichita.