Tulsa’s women’s basketball team is ranked second in the nation in 3-pointers per game. The Shockers knew they were going to have to step up and defend the 3-point line. 

Wichita State did just that by limiting Tulsa to a 28.6 3-point field goal percentage on Wednesday night. The Shockers beat the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 84-68.

“We really stressed all week picking up the ball above the 3-point line, having our heels on the 3-point line and being up knowing they would want to come down and shoot threes,” head coach Keitha Adams said. 

A large part of the women’s defensive and offensive gain against the Golden Hurricane was the presence of senior posts Trajata Colbert and Jane Asinde. Colbert had 21 points and 14 rebounds and Asinde had 27 points and 12 rebounds. 

“I can’t say enough about these two young ladies [Colbert and Asinde] ,” Adams said. “How they played and the presence they gave us in the paint and Trajata shot the ball really well, Jane attacked the rim aggressively and just played outstanding.”

In the fourth quarter, Colbert and Asinde were a combined 5-5 from the field. Tulsa’s Temira Poindexter guarded Asinde throughout the game. Asinde said when Poindexter went out she took that as an advantage. 

“Personally for me I felt like I could drive more because someone else was guarding me,” Asinde said. 

There was one point during the game where Tulsa did start to catch up. After the Shockers led at halftime (23-15), Tulsa outscored Wichita State 24-16 in the third quarter. 

Colbert said the Shockers were able to come back from Tulsa’s offensive momentum by composing themselves on defense again. 

“I feel like back in Tulsa we kind of let it affect us a lot,” Colbert said.  “We just got down on ourselves and they took the lead.” 

The women lost at Tulsa in January 70-63.  Adams said when her team played at Tulsa last month, they struggled with letting the Golden Hurricane score second chance points. On Wednesday, the Shockers had 15 second chance points to Tulsa’s two. The women also outrebounded Tulsa 44-28. 

“I feel like we did a pretty good job in not giving them second shots,” Adams said. “If you give them second shots you are in trouble.” 

The women only have one more home game left in the regular season. Before that, the Shockers will play at SMU on Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.