Shockers going for season sweep of Huskies on Saturday

Brian Hayes

Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall instructs Wichita State forward Markis McDuffie to keep his hands on the ball during the second half against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in Reynolds Center.

After returning from a win on the road, No. 22 Wichita State returns to Koch looking to get the season sweep over UConn on Saturday.

The Huskies are 12-12 overall and 5-6 in the conference. They most recently defeated Central Florida by three points on Wednesday.

The Shockers and The Huskies are tied in the overall series, but Wichita State owns the most recent victory which happened earlier this season with a 10-point win in Hartford for the conference opener.

In that game, UConn’s Jalen Adams had 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals. Adams averages 38.2 minutes for game which is good for best in The American.

Adams joined sophomore guard Landry Shamet for the preseason first team all-conference picks. Adams leads UConn in scoring averaging 17.7 points per game.

The Shockers are lead The American in scoring offense averaging 83.3 points per game with a +13.9 scoring margin. Not only do they lead The American in scoring offense, Wichita State’s scoring margin ranks 13th in the nation.

Wichita State ranks in the national top-10 in three categories.  WSU’s rebound margin is second-best in the nation at +10.5. Besides rebound margin, they are third for assists, averaging 19 per game, and sixth for assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.59.

Sophomore guard Austin Reaves is on track to tie a record for consecutive games scoring 20+ points in Marshall’s Era. Reaves had three consecutive games with 20+ points; the last Shocker to do so was current Knicks shooting guard Ron Baker.

If he can reach the 20 mark again on Saturday, he will tie Baker and Garrett Stutz for the Marshall Era record.

Reaves isn’t the only one on track to set records on Saturday. Head Coach Gregg Marshall needs just one more win to reach 150 victories in Charles Koch Arena.

Tipoff is at 5 p.m. and will be broadcasted by ESPN.