ST. LOUIS—Forgive Ron Baker if it took him a little while to get his feet under him on Friday.

After all, the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal game against Missouri State was the first time he had seen the court for Wichita State since Dec. 13 due to a stress fracture.

Sure, Baker committed a foul, missed a shot and turned the ball over before getting his first points. But at the end of the day he finished with 15 points in 19 minutes and helped the Shockers defeat MSU 69-59 to move onto Saturday’s semifinal against Illinois State.

“I’m just glad to have him back,” WSU forward Carl Hall said. “It helps when you’ve got more shooters, especially when you get double-teamed a lot on the block.”

Baker’s first points broke a 23-all score with 1:42 to play in the first half and helped give the Shockers a 29-24 lead at halftime.

The difference in the game came during a 13-3 run early in the second half, a run that saw a trio of 3-pointers by Baker, who was 5 for 7 on the night and 3 for 5 from deep.

“I didn’t know if I was going to play or not, but my biggest thing was just being able to help the team win,” Baker said. “We’re pretty deep, and our bench is pretty strong. We look to speed up the game a little bit and wear out the other team and we did a good job of that tonight.”

As big of an impact as Baker had, it was Hall’s work that really set the tone for the game. Hall led the Shockers with 18 points while bringing in 12 rebounds. Jake White nearly missed out on a double-double as well, finishing with 9 points and 8 rebounds.

WSU out-rebounded the Bears 43-24, and brought down 20 offensive boards.

“I got to give Carl a lot of credit, because he goes to the glass every single time,” White said. “So normally, he brings, you know, two or three people with him to box him out, so leaves the weak side open a lot. So I just capitalized on that.”

WSU’s win was hardly a cakewalk, however. MSU’s freshman guard Marcus Marshall finished with 25 points, and it was his 3-pointer with 7:56 to play that brought the score back to even at 46-all.

Then a quick 8-0 run by the Shockers put the game to rest, as MSU never got closer than six points the remainder of the game.

“I think we battled them. We just simply couldn’t keep them off the glass at the end,” MSU coach Paul Lusk said. “That’s Wichita. Their best offense sometimes is a missed shot and it certainly was true today with 20 offensive rebounds.”

The win puts WSU into Saturday’s semifinal game against Illinois State, which defeated Northern Iowa 73-65. WSU is 2-0 against the Redbirds this season.

The game will begin at 4:05 p.m.

The winner will play the winner of Creighton and Indiana State on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. for the MVC Tournament title.