Shockers stall Motor City Titans

Chadrack Lufile and Cleanthony Early celebrate following the Shockers win over Detroit on Saturday.

Saturday’s Bracket Buster contest against visiting Detroit wasn’t the sort of game Wichita State was used to.

WSU is a defense-oriented team, so it’s not surprising that members of the national media didn’t believe the Shockers could keep up with Detroit’s high-paced scoring offense.

“A lot of folks from ESPN picked Detroit to beat us,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “They didn’t think we could play that pace. So now maybe that rumor’s dispelled.”

Detroit (18-10) had no problem scoring, but they also couldn’t stop the Shockers from winning 94-79. It was the first game in the 90’s for WSU (24-5) since scoring 91 against Davidson in February 2012.

“It was really an uphill battle for us. They got behind our defense in the first half, got us going up and down,” Detroit coach Ray McCallum said. “The pace was too fast for us.”

Malcolm Armstead led WSU with 20 points, but he was hardly the only Shocker scoring. Cleanthony Early and Carl Hall each had 18 points, while Demetric Williams added 14 points.

WSU shot 55 percent from the field, including 40 percent from the 3-point line.

“We continued to push the ball at that race-horse pace and take care of it,” Marshall said. “Bottom line is, it’s really a joy, especially when you win and you score 90-plus, to get out and play that kind of style.”

The game didn’t start out that way, with both teams limping to 14-14 nearly midway through the first half. WSU committed three turnovers during the first 2:30 of the game and trailed 7-2.

“We started off a little bit shaky,” Williams said. “I think in the first two minutes of the game, when we had those turnovers, it kind of put a shock to us.”

WSU caught fire after that, going on a 12-3 run over nearly four minutes and led 46-35 at halftime.

The first part of the second half belonged to Detroit. The Titans went on an 8-1 run in a two-minute span and got as close as 63-62 with 12:37 to play.

But WSU never relinquished the lead and it was the defense that kept Detroit at bay.

“We just tried to keep playing, tried to get some stops on defense,” Hall said. “We knew that was going to be a turning point in the game when we started to get stops. So we started getting stops and the lead went back up.”

Depth proved to be a major factor down the stretch. While WSU had eight players play at least 14 minutes, with Jake White adding nine, Detroit’s starting five played virtually the entire game.

Ray McCallum, the son of Detroit’s coach and top-60 NBA prospect according to CBS Sports, carried the Titans with 29 points. Nick Minnerath had 25 points.

“It was just a matter of them playing their game and us not playing the kind of game that we needed to out here on the road,” Detroit coach Ray McCallum said. “That’s where you got to get stops. You got to slow them down. That wasn’t the case today. Their ability to defend us and speed us up was a huge factor along with their bench and their depth.”