The Wichita State men’s basketball team remained undefeated over the weekend, despite having less than favorable first halves in both games played.

WSU came back to beat William and Mary 79-62 Thursday and Tennessee State 85-71 Saturday.

Saturday’s matchup against Tennessee State marked the Shockers’ fourth game within eight days.

Coach Gregg Marshall said playing so many games in a short amount of time has been a difficult way for the team to start the season, but it’s nothing they shouldn’t be able to handle.

“That’s a lot right out of the chute, but if you can play in the second half, why can’t you play in the first half?” Marshall said.

Sophomore Fred VanVleet said those long stretches of games aren’t something the team is unfamiliar with either.

“When you think about it, that’s what we were doing during the [NCAA] tournament,” VanVleet said. “Playing a lot of games in a short amount of time, and that’s what it takes to win a championship.”

VanVleet was the lead scorer in the game against William and Mary on Thursday with 18 points and eight assists.

William and Mary started the game with a 13-3 lead before a layup by VanVleet and three-pointer by Ron Baker shortened the lead.

A three-point shot by Cleanthony Early with 17 seconds left on the clock put the Shockers down by one going into the half.

However, the second half was a different story for WSU, as they came back to the court and dominated with an 18-4 run.

Kadeem Coleby gave the Shockers their first lead of the game with a dunk and short jump shot to start the run. A steal that gave Chadrack Lufile a fast break dunk capped off the run.

William and Mary failed to recover.

Coach Marshall said the team they played was well coached and praised them for their first-half performance. The Shockers need to do better from the beginning, though, he said.

“We finally played the way we need to play,” Marshall said. “And my job is to make sure we do that out of the gate.”

VanVleet said the team’s performance in the first half motivated the team to play better against the Tennessee State Tigers on Saturday.

That seemed to be the case, as the Shockers led by six points with 14:30 left in the first half, but then the team went cold. Tennessee State took advantage of the Shockers’ poor shooting, sending them to the lockers down by one point.

In the second half, WSU quickly turned things around. Minutes into the half, Early scored a layup off of a stolen pass to start an 8-0 run, sending the crowd into an uproar.

From there, WSU continued their second half onslaught to beat the Tigers 85-71.

Tekele Cotton was perfect at the three-point line in the game, nailing all four attempts. Cotton said having self-confidence was one of the reasons he was able to do as well as he did.

“When you have confidence in yourself it makes everything better,” he said.

Cotton led the team in scoring with 18 points. Early and Baker racked up seven rebounds each.

The Shockers get a small break before they face off against Tulsa Wednesday night for their first away game of the season.