The Wichita State Shockers won their 22nd undefeated game of the season Tuesday night, beating the Loyola Ramblers 57-45.

Cleanthony Early carried the team to the win, scoring 23 points in the matchup. The next best Shocker players were Tekele Cotton and Ron Baker, each with seven points.

If it weren’t for the performance by Early, there could have been a devastating loss to WSU tonight.

“We need somebody to make some shots and he’s the guy right now,” coach Gregg Marshall said.

WSU dominated the game in the first half, outscoring Loyola 36-18 in the first 20 minutes.

Early landed a basket and foul shot to get the Shockers off on a 12-4 run to begin the game. Evan Wessel capped off the run with two free throws.

The Shockers took their biggest lead of the half on a basket by Darius Carter to give the team a 20 point lead. A shot by Loyola’s Nick Osborne shortened the lead to 18 just before the half.

The second half told a different story for Wichita State, as Loyola outscored them 27-21.

Loyola kicked off the second half with a basket by Jeff White. Early and Baker retaliated in suit with two three-pointers to give WSU a 22 point lead.

Baker said that he thought WSU relaxed with a big lead and Loyola used the opportunity to take the upper hand.

A layup and free throw by Milton Doyle shortened WSU’s lead to nine with a little more than two minutes left in the game. WSU held onto the lead in the end though to remain undefeated.

Loyola coach Porter Moser said the Shockers are the best team in the Missouri Valley Conference. Part of that is because of how they speed teams up by pressuring and causing turnovers, he said.  

“Before you could blink they sped us up,” Moser said. “We had like six or seven bad possessions in a row, they capitalized and that was the separation.”

Marshall said the Shockers played loose and did not show any killer instinct in the game, hurting them in the second half.

“I don’t recall really good basketball on our part,” he said. “There was a plethora of things that we didn’t do well.”

Marshall said that the team has some work to do before facing off against Evansville on Saturday.