Wichita State’s chokehold on a second-consecutive conference title got a little bit tighter on Tuesday. 

WSU fought off Indiana State 66-62 for its second road win in three nights, avenging a 68-55 loss to the Sycamores on Jan. 29, when the Shockers were ranked No. 15 in the nation. 

The win keeps WSU (23-5, 11-4 MVC) in sole possession of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with two more conference games to go. The Shockers will host Evansville (14-13, 7-8 MVC) on Feb. 27 for senior night, and will travel to second-place Creighton (22-6, 11-5 MVC) on March 2. 

The Shockers haven’t won back-to-back MVC regular-season titles since 1964 and 1965, the year WSU made it to the Final Four. 

Tuesday’s win over ISU wasn’t pretty, but proved effective for the Shockers. 

WSU’s defense held ISU to 40.8 percent shooting and forced 16 Sycamore turnovers, compared to nine for the Shockers. 

All even at 25 at halftime, the game saw its 11th tie come at 42 each with 9:38 to play. 

WSU held a comfortable 62-55 lead with 41 seconds to play, flipping the script from when the Shockers trailed by the same amount with 40 seconds on Sunday against Illinois State, a game the Shockers rallied to win after a Cleanthony Early 3-pointer in the final seconds. 

Instead of saving the game Tuesday, Early made the biggest mistake of the night when he fouled ISU’s R.J. Mahurin with 37 seconds to go on a made 3-point attempt. 

Mahurin made the free throw, turning a three-possession lead into a one-possession lead in the matter of a few seconds. 

Following a pair of Demetric Williams free throws, ISU’s Dawon Cummings hit a 3-pointer to make it a two-point game with 25 seconds to play. 

Early made up for his earlier mistake by knocking in a pair of free throws with 18 seconds on the clock, increasing the Shocker lead to four. 

A block by Tekele Cotton in the final seconds helped preserve the win for WSU. 

The Shockers’ next game will be on Saturday against Detroit in the team’s BracketBuster game at 3 p.m. on ESPN2.