Wichita State and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane squared off for the 123rd time on Wednesday.

The Shockers came out slow once again, but in the end were able to hold off the Hurricane players to win 77-54. Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet led the Shockers’ scoring with 21 points each. VanVleet also led the Shockers with 6 assists, while Chadrack Lufile led the team with 10 rebounds.

Baker had his career high in points at 21 and led the team with 7-9 shooting from the field and 5-7 from beyond the arc.

The Shockers walked off the court at halftime with the score tied at 31 to chants of “overrated.”

The Shockers came ready to play angry after the break. Within the first 45 seconds of the second half, WSU quickly jumped out with a 5-point lead, only to watch it disappear because of Tulsa guard Tim Peete.

With the Shockers up by three, and a little more than 10 minutes to go in the second half, the team put together a 10-0 run. They took an 11-point lead 59-48 with 8:45 left to go in regulation.

With 5:38 left in the game, Baker had a thunderous dunk on guard Shaquille Harrison and followed it up with a three-pointer during his next time down the court. This put the score at 71-53 with 4:06 left in the game.

The Shockers finished off the Hurricane with two three-pointers an ended the game on a 15-1 run.

Tulsa shot 13-30 from the free throw line for the game, which only helped WSU win.

The Shockers enjoyed another excellent second half, out-scoring Tulsa 46-23 to win 77-54 and improving to 5-0 on the season.

“There were only three of us on the team who came down here two years ago and knew this was a very tough place to play,’’ Baker said. “Down the stretch, we defended and made the shots we needed to make to win the game.”

VanVleet echoed previous thoughts from the season on matching the scoring from the first and second halves of the game.

“We want to change that and play the first half the way that we are playing the second half,’’ VanVleet said. ‘’We know that our ranking can be a shot of energy for the other team at the start of the game. But we know that we can grind on the other team for a while, and then we will bust it open.’’

The Shocker men’s basketball team plays next at the Sprint Center in Kansas City for the CBE Hall of Fame Classic. They face DePaul at 9 p.m. Monday.