Wichita State handled Missouri State in their first meeting of the season with platoons.

Five WSU scorers posted double figures as the Shockers defeated the bears by 18 points. At home, the Shockers are undefeated for the last 18 games.

“It’s always good to play at home. We love playing at home and being in front of the crowd,” junior Shaquille Morris said. “We have a different mindset on the road. We have a little more confidence here.”

The Shockers and the Bears met relatively late for conference play, having played teams twice before even getting a first look at MSU. In 16 days, the two meet again at Missouri State.

Missouri State lost the margin in nearly every category. The Bears, however, out-rebounded the Shockers 41-34.

“I don’t expect anyone to out-rebound us by seven, but they did,” head coach Gregg Marshall said.

WSU’s five juniors all posted double-digit points.

Morris scored the team’s highest, with 13. Zach Brown, who led the team in minutes, scored 12. Conner Frankamp, Rauno Nurger and Darral Willis all posted 10.

Frankamp scored in double figures for the fourth straight game.

“My guards did a great job of looking inside and realizing playing inside out is what we need to do,” Morris said. “That’s how I feed off my game — from those guys.”

The Shockers went into the second half with already a 27-point lead and almost doubled MSU’s field goal percentage. WSU finished shooting 46 percent to the Bear’s 37 percent. MSU had 21 turnovers, 10 more than the Shockers.

WSU has the highest home scoring margin out of all the Division I teams — the Shockers average 31.5 points per game over their opponents.

Missouri State attempted to switch to a zone to slow down the Shockers’ scoring early in the second half but couldn’t succeed; allowing WSU to score 32 in the second half alone.

The Bears’ offense did improve the second half, winning the half by nine points.

“I thought we played very good basketball for about the first 16 minutes of the first half,” Marshall said. “Tonight we didn’t play quality basketball for long enough. I’m a little disappointed with how we played in the second half.

“We get two days to prepare for Loyola. They’re a really good team, they can really score the basketball, but if we leave them open the way we did against Missouri State in the second half then we will be in some trouble.”

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