Here are three stretches Wichita State could have closed out Temple

It was a game that will be remembered as one that got away from No. 16 Wichita State.

Despite holding a lead for 36 minutes on Thursday night at the Liacouras Center, the Shockers came up on the losing end of an 81-79 game against Temple. Two weeks ago WSU owned the nation’s longest road winning streak; now it has lost back-to-back road games to unranked foes for the first time since 2013.

“It’s a game we feel like we could have won, and maybe should have won,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “I don’t know, I’ll have to go back and watch the video tape. They obviously made the plays and we didn’t down the stretch and made the big shots.”

WSU failed to close out the game in regulation because it could only muster 16 points in its final 25 possessions (0.64 ppp), a painful array of seven turnovers mixed with 6-of-22 shooting. After building a five-point lead in overtime, WSU (17-5, 7-3 American) then went scoreless on its final four possessions and the Owls (12-10, 4-6) swooped in for the win.

In a game of missed chances, here were the three key stretches where the Shockers could have sealed a victory in Philadelphia.

1. Failing to bury Temple with a 7-point lead

After Temple briefly surged ahead, 64-63, WSU seized control with a 9-1 run capped by a Shaq Morris put-back that doubled as his 1,000th career point to establish a 72-65 lead with five minutes left. The opportunity was there to keep Temple at bay.

Even when Nate Pierre-Louis drilled a three to cut the lead to four, WSU’s defense produced two straight stops for two chances to build the lead.

Instead, the Shockers squandered both opportunities with turnovers on failed back-cut passes. The first was the right read by Morris to Landry Shamet, but the pass came a full second too late and was intercepted. Then Shamet was too ambitious trying to fit in a long bounce pass to Austin Reaves, as the ball was deflected off Reaves’ fingertips.

“A lot of things were disappointing,” Marshall said. “We just needed to make one more play.”

Given the opportunity to stick around, Temple cashed in with two Obi Enechionyia free throws and a fadeaway jumper by Shizz Alston to knot WSU up at 72 with 2:16 remaining. WSU committed a turnover (16 total) on 20 percent of its possessions, the fifth-highest rate of the season.

“They’re a real good team, but we messed up on our end executing down the stretch,” Morris said.

When asked what he wants WSU to learn from the loss, Marshall did not hesitate.

“We can’t turn the ball over that much,” he said.

2. Not finishing after taking 74-72 lead

With the game on the line, Marshall called for a Morris ball screen for Shamet. Shamet took the screen and stretched Temple’s defense out with a side dribble and hesitated just long enough to create an opening to whip the ball into Morris, who spun and finished for the go-ahead basket with 1:18 remaining.

After a defensive stop, WSU had the ball, up two, with the clock running under 30 seconds. But the Shockers waited so long to initiate Shamet into a ball screen that when he couldn’t penetrate, he had to kick out to Austin Reaves, who had to hoist a well-contested three-pointer. Temple rebounded and called timeout with 13 seconds left.

The play was to isolate Alston and led him create. WSU switched all screens, which left Brown on Alston. When Alston lowered his head and drove right, Brown matched him stride-for-stride and forced Alston to maneuver mid-air around his out-stretched hands to somehow cajole the game-tying basket in with seven seconds.

WSU could have called timeout immediately following the basket or once it passed half-court. Instead, Shamet pushed it and found Reaves, who whipped it to Brown open in the corner. Could he have drove? That’s easy to say in hindsight since Brown released his shot with 2.8 seconds left, but much harder to have a player be aware of the time when it’s happening in the moment.

Brown has made four three-pointers in that exact spot this season, per Synergy, but this one — a potential game-winner — was off.

“There were probably 150 possessions in that game and if something would have went our way in any one of those, we win that game,” Reaves said. “(Brown) doesn’t need to hold his head low because of that. If it was in the same situation, we’d give him the ball again. It was a good look, next time he’s going to knock it down.”

Marshall made the point after the game that it shouldn’t have come down to that.

“We’ve got to make our layups and make our free throws,” Marshall said. “We’ve got to play better basketball, make one more play to win the game so we don’t even have to go to overtime. Win it in regulation, but that’s not what we did.”

3. Allowing a 79-74 overtime lead to slip away

WSU’s defense generated three straight stops to begin overtime, as free throws from Reaves and a dunk by Morris put the Shockers up 79-74 with 2:19 remaining.

Quinton Rose resuscitated Temple with a three, then WSU came up empty when Morris turned over his left shoulder to float a right hook — a shot he’s scoring at 1.22 points per possession this season — and missed.

Temple tied it at 79 the next possession, as Temple engaged Morris in a high ball screen, knowing he would hedge. The ball handler, Alston, dragged the play out, waiting for Morris to turn his back to recover. As soon as he did, Alston exploded to the rim and forced Shamet to foul. Two foul shots later, WSU’s lead had evaporated in 35 seconds.

“Coach told me to take one back dribble, then go hard to the basket,” Alston said. “I knew they were going to have a big guy on me, so as soon as I came off I took one back dribble and then went hard to the basket.”

Marshall went back to the Morris-Shamet high ball screen on the following possession, as Shamet collapsed the defense and made the right read to lay it off to Morris for what should have been another dunk. But Shamet’s pass was behind Morris and resulted in a turnover, his sixth of the game and a new career-high.

But WSU had another chance with the score tied, once again calling Morris to screen for Shamet. This time Shamet took the screen and confidently dribbled into a three-pointer, but missed. After making seven of their first 11 three-pointers, the Shockers missed 15 of their final 16 beyond the arc. Marshall was not perturbed by the selection down the stretch. “Those were what were available,” Marshall said.

On Temple’s final possession, WSU failed to come up with the defensive rebound when Alston missed a mid-range jumper. Temple appeared to make a blunder when instead of waiting for the final shot, Rose launched a corner three-pointer with 21 seconds remaining.

It missed and Reaves swooped in for the rebound, an apparent WSU stand that was negated by a foul call on Shamet for boxing out Enechionyia with 18 seconds left. He made both free throws, which were the game’s final points.

After calling timeout with 13 seconds left, Marshall gave Shamet the option to use a high ball screen this time set by Markis McDuffie. Shamet rejected the screen, penetrated down the lane and kicked to Morris on the baseline. McDuffie’s defender had crashed into the lane to double Morris, who swung it back to McDuffie for a wide-open three straight away that banged off the front of the rim.

“It’s a pretty helpless feeling,” Marshall said. “It’s a long second and a half when the ball is in flight. You basically look at the trajectory, look at the arc, whether it’s on line or not. From my vantage point, I had no idea. But it looked pretty good on arc. That’s a shot you’ll take.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2018 at 2:18 AM with the headline "Here are three stretches Wichita State could have closed out Temple."