Wichita State women’s basketball returned to Charles Koch Arena against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and avenged its February loss to the 49ers with a 62-43 win on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Wichita State improved to 10-20 on the season and 4-13 in the American Athletic Conference, just enough to leapfrog the 49ers, who are now 9-19 on the season and 4-13 in the AAC.
With the win, WSU is in 11th place in the conference, avoiding the opening 12/13 seed play-in game in the conference tournament if the standings hold.
“We kept them from making threes, which was an Achilles’ heel for when we played them the first game,” WSU head coach Terry Nooner said.
In the last go around against Charlotte, the Shockers allowed eight makes from 3-point range. But on Saturday, they held the away team to a 0-11 mark from deep.
This is the first time Wichita State has held an opponent blank from deep since 2018, when the team gave up no makes on two attempts against the University of Central Florida.
“Last time we played them, they played a lot of zone (defense),” Nooner said. “So we added a bunch of zone plays that I think were a lot better against the zone today.”
Graduate student Taylor Jameson knocked down her first 3-pointer of the game early in the first two minutes. Sophomore guard Salese Blow followed up shortly after with a 3-pointer of her own.
Charlotte’s offense operated with jump shots as the Shockers gave up low-reward looks from the midrange.
“We don’t want to give up wide open threes,” Nooner said. “We don’t want to give them free throws and we won’t want to give up layups. I don’t think people can beat you if they shoot contested mids.”
Wichita State went 5-9 from 3-point range in the first half. The Shockers eventually finished 7-19 (37%) from deep during the game, the team’s fifth-best 3-point shooting performance of the season.
While Charlotte punished the Shockers by operating in the midrange, the Shockers countered with output on the glass, gathering 10 second-chance points in the first half. Charlotte only had two second-chance points the entire game from 10 offensive rebounds.
WSU won the game-long battle of the boards, 44-39. Junior forward Jayla Murray led the team in rebounding with eight, some of which were contested.
“When we win the rebound battle, we always win,” Nooner said. “So kudos to the ladies.”
Wichita State is 9-5 in games in which the team grabbed more boards than their opponent this year and 1-15 in games where the Shockers were out-rebounded.
While the rebound differential looked slim on the box score, Wichita State played the positioning game well without having to crash hard on the glass.
“We switched to a gap based defense to try to guard against penetration and I think that also puts you in a better rebound position,” Nooner said.
Nooner’s claustrophobic defensive scheme shrunk the floor for Charlotte’s playmakers as they were forced out of bounds to create deadball turnovers.
“You’re trying to get yourself in a position where a person who has the ball doesn’t look like they have driving angles,” Nooner said.
Junior guard Princess Anderson got the green light from deep, nailing 3-6 from 3-point range during the game. Jameson also hit 3-7 from 3-point range as one of the key offensive cogs for WSU.
“Whenever I’m on the floor, I just play,” Anderson said. “When my name is called, I am ready to play.”
Blow kept the Charlotte defense guessing with penetration, knocking down 4-5 from the charity stripe.
Although Wichita State slowed down by the end of the fourth quarter, no fourth quarter comeback was ever entertained by the defense.
Wichita State will wrap up the regular season with Senior Day at Charles Koch Arena on Tuesday, March 4. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. against the University of Tulsa.
“It’s emotional,” Nooner said. “People come in at 18 years old and I remember the time goes by so fast.
“I remember my senior day, me and my classmates were making bets, ‘Who was the one that was going to be crying?’ Nobody picked me and I ended up being the one that was crying hard on Senior Day.”
