Wichita State men’s basketball fell to Missouri, 72-62, on Sunday at the game in Charles Koch Arena. With the loss, the Shockers fall to 1-1 on the season. 

Mizzou quickly jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half after a 10-0 run. After struggling out of the gates, WSU responded late and only trailed by four points at the half. 

Junior combo-guard Dexter Dennis said that getting off to that rough start was very frustrating.

“No team wants to start out being down double digits in a matter of minutes so it just makes the game a lot harder because you’re trying to fight back for so long,” Dennis said. “So I think it’s very frustrating.”

The Tigers once again started out hot in the second half, growing its lead to 17 with 10:03 left in the game. The Shockers were able to trim the deficit to ten late, but struggled to make it closer than that. 

One of the things that Interim Head Coach Isaac Brown said he liked from his team was the resiliency they showed throughout. 

“Those guys just kept battling and that’s what I like about them,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of leaders in the locker room, a lot of guys stepped up, they didn’t point fingers. They stayed together and stayed solid. We just ran out of gas there at the end but we can learn a lot from this game.”

Missouri featured one of the most experienced rosters in the country which Brown said played a factor for WSU on offense. 

“They took us out of a lot of stuff that we were running early and we couldn’t make shots early on. We got off to a slow start in the first half and early in the second half we got off to a slow start. But I want to give Missouri a lot of credit, that’s a really good basketball team.”

The Shockers once again had limited depth as only nine scholarship players were available. Freshman Ricky Council IV made his Shocker debut against the Tigers, tallying three points in 11 minutes of action. 

Brown said that organization has been the biggest challenge with the limited number of players suited up.

“I think the biggest thing is us being organized because we have so many guys playing different positions and they’re not playing at positions that they normally play in practice,” Brown said. I felt that with our depth we just ran out of gas there at the end. ”

One of the areas that Missouri was able to take advantage of was the Shockers’ transition defense. Brown said that one of his keys heading this game was limiting transition points. But the Tigers took advantage and scored 15 fast-break points in the process. 

“So the plan was after we scored to jump into our 2-2-1 pressure and get back to our zone defense,” Brown said. “We weren’t able to get back, those guys pushed it hard in transition and that was one of the biggest adjustments to the game.”

One of the bright spots for the Shockers was the performance of junior college transfer Clarence Jackson. Jackson finished with 14 points on 4-11 shooting along with seven rebounds. 

“I’m so impressed with his energy off the bench,” Brown said. “He’s playing hard and he’s going to get better and better once he learns our system. Right now he’s just playing harder than everybody else.” 

Missouri’s Head Coach Cuonzo Martin was impressed with Jackson’s performance as well.

“We didn’t anticipate Clarence being as tough as he was,” Martin said. “We knew he was a slasher and all that but I think he dominated us. He won that battle.”

As one of the seven newcomers to Wichita State, graduate transfer Alterique Gilbert said that the team is still getting accustomed to playing with each other. 

“We’re still learning how to play with each other, so it’s all a learning experience,” Gilbert said. “I think we’ve got a great group of guys who will learn from this and we’ll pick it right back up.”

The Wichita State Shockers next play on Sunday, Dec. 12 against Oklahoma State (4-0). Tip-off for Sunday’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m and will be broadcast on ESPN+.