Wichita State fans have a tradition of standing and clapping rhythmically until the opposing team scores its first basket from the field in a half.
The Shocker faithful taking up the east side of the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri remained standing for the first six minutes of the second half against Saint Louis University on Friday night. Wichita State rode a 12-2 run during that time to cruise to a win over the Billikens, 88-63.
“A really, really good win,” said WSU head coach Paul Mills. “To be able to, we had a lot of confusion in the first half defensively. That was on us as coaches, and I thought the team responded really well with the things that we were trying to do in the second half.”
Wichita State remained undefeated at 5-0, while Saint Louis dropped to 2-2. Last year, the Shockers defeated Saint Louis, 88-69. Wichita State has won its last seven matchups with the Billikens.
The Billikens were playing without junior center Robbie Avila, nicknamed ‘Cream Abdul-Jabbar’ by fans, who is out injured with an ankle injury.
Saint Louis’ head coach, Josh Schertz, said his team “quit” and “shut down” when the game got difficult. In comparison, he said the Shockers played extremely hard and were disruptive.
“That’s a tough, competitive team,” Schertz said. “They have dynamic guards. You know, we couldn’t do anything on either end. They were just so much more physical. They (had) so much more energy, so much more aggressive.”
Wichita State shot just 23% from 3-point range, 5-22, but shot 57% on its twos and scored 46 points in the paint. Saint Louis didn’t fare much better at 20% from beyond the arc.
“I’d have to go back and watch the film, but I thought for the most part those were paint-touch threes,” Mills said. “… I didn’t think that any of them were necessarily bad, but we had a lot of success getting to the cup. So yes, it’s good that you win a game like this, but we can’t get away from what it is that we’re pretty good at – and that’s being able to get to the rim.”
The Shockers forced 14 turnovers and scored 24 points off of them. Wichita State also scored 22 points on fast breaks to Saint Louis’ five, and scored 21 points at the free throw line.
For the second consecutive game, the Shockers came out of the gates slowly, failing to gain any distance from Saint Louis.
Bench scoring was the early story for the Shockers. Mills went to the reserves early and they delivered 15 of Wichita State’s first 18 points, including five from fifth-year guard AJ McGinnis and four from senior center Matej Bošnjak, as the Shockers led, 18-17.
“You can’t really pay attention to the bad all the time,” McGinnis said. “You’ve just got to keep working. And, you know, (the shots will) fall one day. So today is that day, and I’m glad I was able to contribute to our W.”
Saint Louis scored its final points from the field in the first half with just under four minutes left. The Shockers went on an 8-2 run to lead, 40-37 going into the break.
Wichita State led despite shooting 1-10 from the 3-point line in the first half. Fifth-year guard Justin Hill couldn’t buy a bucket, shooting 0-4 from 3-point range and 2-10 from the field in the first 20 minutes.
The Billikens’ cold streak to open the second half meant the team missed nine consecutive shots and turned the ball over five times during 10 minutes of game time encompassing the end of the first half and beginning of the second. During that period, the Shockers ballooned their lead to 13 points, 52-39.
Mills said the team got back to doing “what we do” defensively in the second half.
“We’re used to switching,” Mills said. “We tried not to. It turned around and hurt us quite a bit in the first half. And we just said, ‘Man, let’s get back to what we usually practice and not game plan so much.’ And guys responded well.”
Saint Louis never came within 10 points of WSU’s lead the rest of the way as the Shockers cruised to victory.
By the end of the game, the loudest chants from the crowd were for sophomore forward Henry Thengvall to get into the game, a wish Mills granted with two minutes remaining.
Hill fought through a poor shooting day to still lead WSU in points with 17. Four WSU players scored more than 10 points in the win. Seven Shockers registered a steal and five had five or more rebounds with the team’s leading rebounder, senior forward Ronnie DeGray III, out for the next 4-6 weeks with a wrist injury.
“We needed AJ (McGinnis), we needed (senior guard) Bijan (Cortes), we needed multiple guys to stick their noses in there and be able to retrieve basketballs,” Mills said.
Wichita State will continue its neutral-site stretch as it travels to Kissimmee, Florida for the ESPN Events Invitational on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Its first match against the University of Minnesota is on Thursday, Nov. 28 at 11 a.m.
The game against the Gophers can be streamed on ESPN 2.
