Wichita State men’s basketball’s second matchup against the University of North Texas ended the same way as the previous time the two teams met earlier this season. The Shockers lost by a slim margin on Monday night, 68-66.
Wichita State had a chance to earn the road win at the buzzer but couldn’t get a clean shot off. The game featured just two lead changes and the Shockers led for less than four minutes of game time, hanging around but never quite pulling ahead.
With the loss, Wichita State fell to 17-12 overall and 7-9 in the American Athletic Conference. UNT upped its record to 22-6 on the season and 13-3 in the AAC.
“We need to find a way to win some gritty games,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said in his postgame radio interview. “Where there is a lot of contact and you need to be able to fight through.”
The Shockers turned the ball over just seven times in the game, their lowest since December. While the bench struggled in WSU’s previous game, the four Shocker reserve players combined for 25 points in Monday’s matchup.
Wichita State finished the game shooting 46% from the floor and sank 84% of its free throws. UNT shot more efficiently at 51% from the floor and nearly made all its free throws with a 91% mark from the stripe.
Senior guards Xavier Bell and Harlond Beverly spearheaded the offense. Bell scored a team-high 19 points on a perfect 7-7 mark from the free-throw line, and Beverly added 16 points of his own while coming off the bench.
UNT came out the gate hitting its field goals and 3-pointers to take a commanding 16-4 lead after the 14-minute mark of the first half.
Junior forward Corey Washington played limited minutes in the early part of the game after committing two fouls.
With the bench on the floor, the Shockers, led by fifth-year guard Justin Hill and Beverly, calmed the storm. Beverly led the team in scoring and rebounding in the first half with eight points and four rebounds.
Senior guard Bijan Cortes cashed the first 3-pointer for Wichita State, and a steal by senior center Quincy Ballard’s fast hands led to a fast break opportunity. The two plays by Cortes and Ballard capped off a 7-0 run to make the score 25-22, UNT.
While UNT took 17 3-pointers in the game, the Shockers preferred to knife inside and work the midrange. Hill went for five points in only six minutes of game time in the first half, scoring his most points in a game since a foot injury in January.
Closing out the first half, Beverly took to the skies for a putback as Wichita State trailed into the break, 31-28. The Shockers managed five points off UNT turnovers in the opening period.
In a rarity, Ballard was limited in his impact on the boards. He pulled down four rebounds during the game, his least since November, likely due to the long rebounds created by UNT’s 3-pointers.
The Shockers were held to their lowest rebound total this season with 24.
While Beverly and Hill calmed the storm in the first period, the Shockers came out erratic in the second half. The team settled for tough layups on the offensive end.
Beverly and Washington manufactured an 8-0 run to take WSU’s first lead of the game with 14 minutes to go in the second period, 42-41.
In the waning minutes of the game, the Shockers tightened their approach on both defense and offense, sending the game into a gritty slugfest. Bell stepped up his game in the second half. He scored 17 points in the second period after scoring just two points in the first, doubling any other Shockers’ second-half tally.
In the last 37 seconds of the game, down 68-66, Wichita State managed to force a shot clock violation to take the ball back for the final shot of regulation.
The game ended unceremoniously as an errant pass from Bell slipped through the fingers of Washington, who recovered for a missed heave from the logo as time expired.
“(Bell) had an opportunity to go left,” Mills said. “We got a little confused there with the personnel and ended up bringing more traffic over there with Quincy … (Just) got way too congested and you (have) got to get a shot up on that play.”
Wichita State will stay in Texas for the second and last game of a mini road trip, this time in Houston, to play Rice University on Thursday, March 6. Tipoff against the Owls is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“We need to get this one out of our system as quickly as possible because we’re up for another battle on Thursday night,” Mills said.
