Shockers notch first top-25 victory since 2015
Wichita State forward Darral Willis Jr. stretches for a layup Saturday against Baylor.
The Wichita State men’s basketball team hadn’t won a top-25 regular season game in nearly two years.
Baylor hadn’t lost a non-conference home game since 2012 — holding the second-longest active streak in the nation at 46 games.
Both of those streaks came to an end today, as the no. 8 Shockers (6-1) picked up a 69-62 victory over no. 16 Baylor (5-2) in Waco, Texas.
With the score tied at 62-62 and under three minutes remaining, Conner Frankamp hit a three-pointer to spark a 7-0 game-ending run for the Shockers.
“He’s a great shooter,” Shocker head coach Gregg Marshall said of Frankamp. “He does a great job of letting it go with confidence… Landry [Shamet] does a great job of finding him in transition.”
Frankamp led all scorers with 17 points, connecting on five of eight from three-point range. After scoring the Shockers’ first seven points of the game, big-man Shaquille Morris finished with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Shamet and Darral Willis rounded out the Shockers in double-digits with 11 points each.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with five lead changes — no team led by more the five points in the half.
With Baylor holding a 29-27 lead late in the first half, Shamet connected on back-to-back three-pointers to put the Shockers ahead by four.
Baylor was unable to regain the lead in the second half.
With the win, Wichita State moves to 42-6 on the road since the 2013-14 season — the highest road winning percentage in the NCAA (.872).
“It’s just something that we preach in the locker room before road games,” Frankamp said after the game. “We know defense travels and sometimes offense doesn’t, so one thing we really focus on is locking down defensively and rebounding.”
The Shockers picked up 38 rebounds to Baylor’s 36 and held the Bears to five of 21 from three-point range while connecting on 10 of 16 three-pointers of their own.
Up next for the Shockers is a home matchup with South Dakota State on Dec. 5. South Dakota State appeared in last season’s NCAA tournament as a 16-seed, losing to one-seed Gonzaga in the round of 64.
