Print edition: 
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A shot, a block. A pass, a deflection. Over and over again, Alabama's defenders got their long arms in the way of Wichita State's intentions.
Fourteen blocked shots. Eighteen turnovers.
Over time, it wore down the Shockers and disrupted their offense. No. 16 Alabama gained a measure of revenge for last season's loss in the NIT title game with a 70-60 win over WSU in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off on Friday night.
"We didn't turn it over in the backcourt, we just didn't make the plays, the easy plays, that you have to make to hurt the pressure," WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. "It seemed like we were rushed."
For good reason. Shots that are open against many teams aren't open against Alabama.
"That's what Coach (Anthony Grant) tells us every day — that our defense brings pressure, it's relentless," Alabama guard Trevor Releford said.
WSU (2-1) plays Temple on Sunday for third place. Alabama (4-0) plays Purdue for the championship at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico.
One sequence told the story for the Shockers.
It started with Alabama's Tony Mitchell blocking a shot by Toure Murry. Ben Smith rebounded under the basket and tried to shoot. Several Tide arms rejected his shot. David Kyles shot and Nick Jacobs swatted it.
After an Alabama miss, Kyles worked open but rushed his shot.
That's the way it went for WSU. Every pass and every shot contested. The Tide rarely let WSU dribble without pressure. The Shockers rarely looked comfortable making even the simplest pass.
"Our defense took effect," Grant said.
And once it did, the Shockers didn't recover.
Mitchell led all scorers with 26 points. Releford added 15, 11 coming at the line. Alabama scored 23 points from the foul line to WSU's nine.
WSU shot 33.8 percent from the field. Murry led WSU with 21 points off the bench. Smith added 16 and Ragland 14.
"We tried to play opportunity basketball and make them pay," Ragland said. "But their length and their big guys down low really made us shoot tough contested shots.
WSU took its last lead, 38-37, on a free throw with 16:18 to play. Alabama scored eight straight points to go up 45-38.
The Shockers made their final push to cut the lead to 53-49 with 7:59 to play. Alabama scored the game's next six points, forcing two turnovers and an airball by WSU, to end the rally.
WSU played from behind most of the game.
Mitchell dunked away early. After a steal near the top of the key, he dribbled the rest of the way and slammed in a basket, drawing a foul on Demetric Williams. His free throw gave Alabama an 11-4 lead. Another sky-walking dunk made it 13-6.
The Shockers stabilized after that, with Murry helping off the bench. WSU cut the lead to 18-16 with Murry scoring six of the Shocker points in that run.
WSU took its last lead of the first half on a post-up basket by Smith, making it 23-22.
WSU trailed 31-28 at halftime. It missed a chance to tie by a split-second when a shot-clock violation disallowed Kyles' three.
Alabama forced nine turnovers by WSU in the first half.
Smith and Murry both scored eight points in the first half. Mitchell led the Tide with 12 points.
WSU took the lead twice early in the second half. Smith's corner three on an inbound play pushed the Shockers ahead 34-32. Ragland backed off his defender with a dribble through legs and made a three for a 37-35 lead.
