Ron Baker led the Wichita State Shockers to a 90-72 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons Monday night in their first game of the CBE Classic at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Baker went 7-10 in the game to score 21 points, tying his career high.

After starting out evenly matched Wichita State, Cleanthony Early started off an 11-0 run with 8:30 left in the first half.

The Shockers went to the locker room with an 18-point lead in the first half.

In the second half, DePaul fought back immediately with an 8-2 run of their own to shorten WSU’s lead 54-42.

Kadeem Coleby got the Shockers back in the game with just over 15 minutes left, and the team continued to hold the lead through the rest of the game.

Marshall said last year when WSU faced off against DePaul in Cancun the Shockers had to concentrate more on defense for the win, but this team is more refined.

“We were really defending down in Cancun last year when we played them,” Marshall said. “These guys I think are a little better offensively as a group.”

He said Baker, Early and Fred VanVleet, are all doing better than last year. The only thing missing is a replacement to score in the inside the way Carl Hall did.