The last time Wichita State faced Drake, the Shockers won 66-58 — a small margin of victory for the Missouri Valley’s best team against arguably the league’s worst.

This time around was different.

WSU (18-2, 8-0 MVC) defeated Drake (4-16, 1-7 MVC) Sunday, 74-40, and broke a few records along the way.

“There’s very few teams in the country that play as hard as Wichita State does right now and does all the little things,” said Ray Giacoletti, Drake’s head coach. “Evidently, I got chastised for a comment I made a few weeks ago at Illinois State. It was in no disrespect to Wichita whatsoever.

“Got beat at Illinois State, I made some comment about one through 12, they might be as athletic as anybody in our league. Next thing I know, I’m getting emails and stuff.”

That comment played into the Shockers’ hands. WSU had 99 wins against Drake all-time. Make that No. 100.

“Clearly, we were trying to make a point when someone, like he stated in the media, that someone in the Valley was more athletic than us,” junior guard Ron Baker said. “And it wasn’t one of Coach Marshall’s favorite teams that he said it about. He was definitely talking about it before the game and in the prep during the week that we need to come out and make a statement. I think we did so.”

That statement didn’t just come in the usual stat lines. Consider this: WSU played 15 people and only had five turnovers in the game.

Points in the paint: WSU won 28-12. Points off turnovers: WSU won 24-7. Second chance points: WSU won 15-5. Bench points: WSU won 32-18.

It was a dominating performance in a game where one Shocker set a school record and another tied a Shocker legend.

Fred VanVleet had 388 career assists entering the game, just six behind Dave Stallworth, who sat at No. 5 all-time as a Shocker.

Well, Stallworth has to make some room at the table because VanVleet dished out six assists yesterday and is now tied with him. VanVleet had no idea when asked if he knew about moving up in the record books.

“I did not know that, but thanks for telling me,” VanVleet said after the game. “Obviously, it’s a huge accomplishment when you talk about some of the guys that are in the books.”

VanVleet tried to deflect the accomplishment as well as he could. He said he’s more focused on wins; it has to do with the opportunities he was given and said he was thankful for the teammates on the other end of the passes.

But Baker wouldn’t let the accomplishment go unnoticed.

Baker put his arm around VanVleet with a big smile and said, “I think it’s pretty damn cool, honestly.”

To which VanVleet replied, “Much appreciated,” with a smile.

Then it was time to talk about Tekele Cotton, the man of the day, who became the winningest Shocker of all-time, passing Demetric Williams in the history books with 108 total wins.

Cotton passed up the post-game press conference, maybe because he didn’t know until after the game that he broke the record.

“Obviously, [Cotton] didn’t know about today,” VanVleet said. “We didn’t, but I know for sure he definitely didn’t have any idea about the number of wins, so I just want to congratulate him on that. It’s a huge honor. We’re very thankful to have him.”

VanVleet, again, decided to turn the focus to wins.

“I think everone can appreciate what he’s done for us over his years here, and we just gotta remind him we’re not done yet,” VanVleet said. “We still have a lot more games to go, so let’s keep adding to the win column for him.”