SALT LAKE CITY—If Tekele Cotton had been at Pittsburgh’s post-game press conference to see the tears coming out of Tray Woodall, he might have felt bad for what he did.

Then again, had Cotton not done it, Wichita State might not have beat Pittsburgh 73-55 to advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s a bitter taste in my mouth to end my career with one of the worst games I’ve ever played,” Woodall, Pittsburgh’s star senior guard, said. “Those guys are tough. They came straight from the beginning of the game and they were physical until the end of the game.”

Woodall leads Pittsburgh with 11.8 points per game and entered Thursday’s contest having scored double-digit points in 11 straight games.

But Cotton would have none of that.

Led by Cotton’s defense, Woodall was held to 2 points on 1-of-12 shooting. Cotton only had 6 points in 33 minutes, but his five steals and relentless pressure made all the difference in the game.

“Tekele did real good starting the tempo, setting it for us,” WSU senior guard Malcolm Armstead said. “We just built off that and got some easy baskets.”

Heading into Thursday’s game against Pittsburgh, all the Shockers kept hearing about was how big the Panthers were and how good Woodall was.

It was believed the size advantage would be enough for Pittsburgh to win the rebounding battle and would be the difference in a low scoring game.

For the most part, everyone got what they expected when the teams went to the half with WSU leading 26-21.

What happened in the second half was more surprising, with WSU scoring 47 points in the final 20 minutes against a team that only gives up 55 points a game to rank sixth in the country. WSU out-rebounded Pitt 37-32. 

“Basketball games are 40 minutes,” Armstead said. “You’ve got to continue to stay focused and you can’t get down on missing shots because you know you’re going to get opportunities throughout the game and you’ve got to have confidence and be ready to burn your next shot.”

Armstead led all players with 22 points, while Cleanthony Early finished with 21 points for the Shockers. This was despite a combined 2-for-20 performance from 3-point range for WSU. Combine that with Pittsburgh’s 1-of-17 performance, and you have the worst combined 3-point shooting performance in NCAA Tournament history.

Not that a lack of long-range shooting is hurting the confidence level of the Shockers.

“This group thinks they can beat anyone in the country, and they’re not intimidated,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “They’re not afraid. They’re not going to lose their confidence. They’ve shown that all year long with the adversity they’ve dealt with.”

And what a confident team needs is a good test, one the Shockers will get on Saturday when they play top-seeded Gonzaga, a team also ranked No. 1 in the country in both the coaches and AP polls.

Gonzaga had to battle its way past 16-seeded Southern 64-58 to advance.

Wichita State and Gonzaga will be battling for a trip to Los Angeles for the Sweet 16 next week.

“I just think they feel that they can go out (Saturday) against an unbelievable Gonzaga team, a one seed, and give ‘em a good battle,” Marshall said. “We’re going to scout the game, get some good rest tonight, practice tomorrow, and it should be a great ball game.”

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