Gallery • 16 Photos

Kristy Mace

Wichita State bench players celebrate a 3-pointer in the second half against Emporia State. The Shockers shot 40% from the 3-point line on Oct. 27.

If Wichita State’s men’s basketball team plays anything like what they showed during the Sunday night exhibition against Emporia State University, year two of the head coach Paul Mills era will be significantly more successful than year one.

The Shockers never trailed against the Hornets, winning a blowout, 99-53. The scoreline represents an improvement over last year’s preseason game, a 74-53 victory against Rogers State.

Mills played all 13 of his available players in the game, with all Shockers receiving between nine and 21 minutes.

Wichita State started the game on fire, as the team connected on its first five shots from the field to open ahead, 12-2. The run included junior forward Corey Washington’s first four points in a Shockers jersey and two 3-pointers from senior guard Bijan Cortes. Cortes has worked on his 3-point shooting over the offseason.

“It’s something I’ve worked on for sure a lot this summer,” Cortes said. “Just being consistent, trying to make sure when it’s open shots, I can make them and stuff like that.”

Emporia State briefly rallied for eight straight points, but the Shockers responded with an 8-0 run of their own to open up another 10-point cushion, 22-12, that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Wichita State closed out the half doubling up the Hornets’ scoring, 52-25. The Shockers shot better from 3-point range (38.5%) than Emporia State did from the field (33%) in the first half. In addition, Wichita State committed only one turnover during the period and forced seven.

Leading 57-28 in the second half, the Shockers went on a 9-0 run where they forced three turnovers, and senior center Quincy Ballard recorded a block.

The run was symptomatic of a second half where the only real drama was finding Wichita State’s final margin of victory.

With nine minutes left in the game, Mills subbed out his remaining starters to give reserve players sophomore forward Henry Thengvall and redshirt freshman guard Yanis Bamba game time, a trademark of a Wichita State blowout win.

Five players — Washington, Ballard, senior guard Xavier Bell, senior forward Ronnie DeGray III and senior guard Harlond Beverly — scored more than 10 points for the Shockers.

Bell and Cortes combined for 5-6 shooting from 3-point range. Transfer fifth-year guards Justin Hill and AJ McGinnis, who were recruited in part to provide improved 3-point shooting, missed all six of their shots from beyond the arc.

Ballard secured eight rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass. He added one steal and a block.

Beverly said it “was great” to finally see this Wichita State team get to play in front of a crowd this season.

“You get used to seeing people in the practice jerseys,” Beverly said. “You get to see how good people like Corey and Justin … look good in yellow and white. So it was just fun to have all the new guys and all the returners just come together for a game.”

Mills had some criticisms of the game from Wichita State’s perspective — some players are still adjusting to the pace of the game, players hung too much on the perimeter and the offensive execution was “choppy” at times.

But on the whole, he said “there’s a lot of good to take away” from the game in anticipation of the road season-opener against Western Kentucky University on Monday, Nov. 4.

“We’ve got a number of things to clean up in order to be able to compete against Western Kentucky, so we’re excited to do that, but I’m glad this one is under our belt,” Mills said.

Tipoff against Western Kentucky is scheduled for 7 p.m.