At Charles Koch Arena, in front of more than 6,000 roaring fans, Wichita State men’s basketball officially kicked off their season with a clean sweep over Lipscomb University.
The Shockers took the lead, 76-59 over the Bisons. Paul Mills, head coach of basketball, said he set the expectation to win by one point in his first game as head coach.
Junior center Quincy Ballard put up 10 points and 10 rebounds during the game. This includes the first point scored by Wichita State, a dunk from Ballard.
“We got off to a heck of a start with Quincy’s dunk,” Mills said.
Redshirt junior guard Colby Rogers had six rebounds and 20 points. He said the exhibition game against Rogers State was an opportunity to showcase what he can do.
“My teammates gave me confidence to do it, and (the) coaches gave me confidence,” Rogers said. “So I was happy to be out there, finally, for Shocker Nation to come up with a win.”
Mills mentioned two principles that will be crucial for the team’s future, being in shape and having fundamentals.
“There’s elementary things that we need to do and we need to do well, but none of that can happen if we’re not in great shape,” Mills said.
Despite having 10 turnovers, the team had 51 rebounds overall.
“We’re going to work out to be a good rebounding team,” Mills said. “We are a good rebounding team, yet to be determined if we will be great at it.”
Forward Kenny Pohto said Dalen Ridgnal, who played his first official game for Wichita State, brings a great attitude to the team.
“He’s just an (energetic) guy,” Pohto said. “He gets the whole group going and even when he’s not playing maybe the best thing he could; he still keeps the energy high, and that’s good for us to have somebody like that.”
Going into halftime, the Shockers were up 44-31. They led Lipscomb for nearly 37 minutes.
“We didn’t give up anything much in transition defense,” Mills said. “And that’s gotten better. Being able to do what we did on the boards, a team that shoots 39 threes, and then only shoots 32 twos, there’s just gonna be so many long rebounds.”
The Shockers will be back in Charles Koch Arena on Thursday, Nov. 9 to face off against Western Kentucky. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale at goshockers.com.
