Wichita State was blown out 75-54 by Cincinnati on senior day.  With the loss Saturday, the Shockers fall to 15-13 on the season and 7-8 in conference play.

The Bearcats outscored WSU 19-9 in the second quarter to take a 32-25 lead into the locker room. In the second half, it was more of the same from the Bearcats, as they outscored WSU 43-29 en route to the 21-point victory.

Senior guard Ashley Reid provided some energy late for the Shockers, scoring seven straight points, but Cincinnati managed to pull away with four minutes left in the contest. 

Head Coach Keitha Adams seemed to vent some frustration after the referees decided to review a play with under a minute remaining in the game and Cincinnati holding a commanding 18-point lead. Adams ended up being thrown out of the game — the first ejection of her coaching career.

“I’m not sure what they were out there talking about for so long,” Adams said. “I don’t know. I just know that there’s 58 seconds on the clock. I was ready for the game to be over and we were taking a long time.”

WSU never seemed to find their shooting groove, partially due to the different defenses that the Bearcats threw at them.  For the game, the Shockers shot 33% (20-60) from the floor and 31% (5-16) on three-pointers. 

“Our offense struggled knocking down shots. We really couldn’t get in a flow,” Adams said. “A little bit of that is their defense. They mix up their defenses and it was a struggle today on offense. In the second half, our frustration boiled over a little bit on the offense. In the timeouts, they looked very frustrated, and when you’re not making shots and your offense is struggling, that can really mount.”

Ilmarl’l Thomas dominated, tallying 26 points and grabbing five rebounds. The Bearcats also scored effectively in the paint and controlled the glass, outrebounding the Shockers 40-30.

Adams said rebounding has been a season-long issue for her team.

“You have to box out. You have to put a body in people and be physical. That’s not a strength of our team,” Adams said. “We don’t do that very well. We don’t like to get physical a lot of times.”

Before and after the game, the Shockers honored their three seniors — Ashley Reid, Raven Prince, and Maya Brewer. All three players have spent two years with WSU after transferring from junior colleges.

Adams said her seniors have been crucial to the program’s development.

“I appreciate them helping us getting the program started, and I’m always going to be wishing them good luck and for them to be successful after Wichita State and whatever their future endeavors are,” she said. “I’m going to be cheering for them.”

The Shockers close out the regular season on Monday as they face off with Central Florida at 6 p.m. Adams said she wants to see her team play hard and show passion.

“We’ve got to show up and play a lot better, and we’ve got to play with a lot more passion, and we’ve got to hit shots,” Adams said. “We’ve got to get the eye of the tiger in us. The second half, it seemed like there was a struggle there. We’ve just got to play better and hopefully shoot the ball better.”