Whether it was slashing inside or knocking down outside shots, freshman Fred Van Vleet gave Wichita State the complete game they’ve been waiting for.

Van Vleet scored a career-high 17 points and dished out a career-high nine assists, leading the Shockers (21-5, 10-4 Missouri Valley Conference) to a 71-56 victory over the Drake Bulldogs (11-14, 5-9 MVC) to grab sole possession of first place in the Valley. 

“The past couple of games I’ve been playing a little better, obviously,” Van Vleet said. “I didn’t expect to do what I did. I felt like I was getting better each game and just build on each game and never take steps back.”

When the slick freshman point guard wasn’t knifing into the teeth of Drake’s defense, he swished open three-pointers and disrupted their passing lanes. Shockers’ coach Gregg Marshall called his performance a “coming out party.”

 “I think he is going to be a tremendous floor general,” Marshall said. “He’s so cerebral and tonight he showed a little bit of everything. He was able to change gears, get into the paint and hit the three-ball.”

Carl Hall had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Malcolm Armstead scored 12 points.

WSU attacked the boards with ferocity, out-rebounding the Bulldogs 45-29. And the Shockers pounded them on the offensive glass, 18-9.

“It is really hard to prepare for the size and athleticism, coming and attacking the offensive glass,” Drake coach Mark Phelps said. “You don’t have a scout team that can simulate that.”

The Bulldogs led by two 10 minutes into the first half, but the Shockers held the Bulldogs to just one field goal the remainder of the half. A two–point lead turned into a 14-point deficit of 30-16 by halftime.

The second half didn’t start out much better for Drake—the Shockers opened the half on a 10-3 run to build their lead to 40-25. The lead swelled to 52-33 after Micah Mason fouled Van Vleet on a made three-point basket. 

However, three Drake three-pointers spearheaded a 12-2 run to cut the Shocker lead to 55-47. That is as close as the Bulldogs would get before Armstead answered the run with a three-pointer and Tekele Cotton knocked down a baseline jumper to push the lead up to 62-47.

“We won in the first half—when you hold a team to 29 percent and 9 percent, that’s a big cushion,” Marshall said. “They were shooting the ball like crazy in the second half.”