WSU takeaways: Fans 'unbelievable' in helping Shockers win on road

Looking up at the stands in the Reynolds Center on Saturday night, it was a 50-50 call on which side was the home team.

That’s because Wichita State fans made the two-and-a-half hour drive in droves to help sell out the 8,355-seat arena for the first time since 2009. No. 5 WSU rewarded them with a 72-69 victory over Tulsa to extend the nation’s longest road winning streak to 11 games.

“Unbelievable,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said about the crowd. “That was tremendous. I’m not quite sure what the percentage was, but that was substantial. It makes us really excited to go on the road and have a fan base like that. I guess they’re really excited to be in the same league as Tulsa and make that drive. There was a tremendous following, as usual, however I didn’t expect it to be that large. It was very loud and helpful in our win.”

WSU played in its second road game in three days and came out flat at Tulsa, falling behind 30-20 in the first half before rallying to take a 36-32 halftime lead.

The players said after the game that WSU’s fans helped energize them during the run.

“It’s cool to have fans that are so passionate and supportive to make the trip down,” WSU sophomore guard Landry Shamet said. “Us and Tulsa have history and it is a rivalry that goes way back. I think our fans are excited about renewing that and it was cool to see a lot of yellow and black in the stands.”

It was the first time WSU and Tulsa have played as conference rivals since 1996. WSU leads the series 66-61 and has won nine of the last 10 games.

“I think it’s great for the league,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “I’m really excited about Wichita State being in the league. The last couple years you see expansion decisions being made and it was all based on football. So it was great to see a decision made based on basketball. They’re a great addition to our league.”

Other takeaways from Saturday’s game:

The Rauno Renaissance

After playing a 18 combined minutes in a three-game stretch in late December, senior center Rauno Nurger has seen a steady increase in minutes in WSU’s last four conference games.

On Saturday, Nurger played 22 minutes — the most since Dec. 5 against South Dakota State — and contributed eight points and six rebounds to the victory. WSU coach Gregg Marshall even had Nurger lead WSU in its post-game victory chant.

“Rauno was tremendous,” Marshall said. “Gutty performance by him. He had a big slip to the basket late in the game, then I thought he rebounded the ball well. Really excited for him and happy he was able to help us get the win.”

Nurger said he didn’t mind playing limited minutes because he understands the problem Marshall has with the depth at the post position with Shaquille Morris, Darral Willis, and Rashard Kelly all vying for the same minutes.

“I just had to keep working hard at practice,” Nurger said. “This is probably the deepest team we’ve had since I’ve been here, so I think it makes all of us stronger because there’s such good competition in practice.”

Nurger said being aggressive is the biggest key to his game and he was most proud of his lay-up with 4:53 remaining to put WSU up 63-55. Nurger set a screen, then rolled hard to the rim and finished with contact in the paint.

It’s play Plays like that which are what Marshall wants to see more of from his 6-foot-11 senior from Estonia.

“For me, if I get one good play early then that makes me a lot more confident,” Nurger said. “I think that helps me be more aggressive and it’s a little easier to build on.”

Nurger had to leave the game in the first half after dislocating the pinky finger on his left hand. Nurger returned to play 11 minutes in the second half.

“They were able to pull it right back in and tape it up and I was ready to go,” Nurger said. “It did hurt a little bit when they were pulling it back, but nothing too bad.”

WSU makes one more play

It was difficult to pinpoint one exact reason why WSU was able to prevail.

The Shockers did not shoot particularly well, making 41 percent of its shots and 34.5 percent from beyond the arc. WSU did have a 42-30 rebounding advantage and outshot Tulsa 12-3 at the foul line, but there wasn’t a critical rebound or foul shot that took place in the closing moments.

“In the end, we just made one more play,” Marshall said.

The corner three-pointer by Conner Frankamp seemed to be the game-winning play when the ball swished through the net, restoring WSU’s lead to 71-66, but Tulsa’s Corey Henderson responded with a three-pointer 15 seconds later to trim it back down to two points.

Frankamp missed another three on WSU’s final possession, then Henderson missed an open three that swirled in and out with 11 seconds left that would have put Tulsa up by one point. Kelly secured the rebound, then shuttled it off to Landry Shamet, who was fouled with eight seconds left, but Shamet left the game undecided by missing the second of his free throws.

Marshall decided to foul Tulsa in a one-and-one situation before it could attempt a game-tying three-pointer. Tulsa had made 12 three-pointers and 48 percent of its attempts at that point.

“I was hoping Landry would make his second free throw and I was shocked that he didn’t,” Marshall said. “Up four, then we play it out. But up three with eight seconds to go, I thought the percentages of putting a guy on the foul line and it was a one-and-one, which is even better, were in our favor to do that.”

But the strategy nearly backfired, as Sterling Taplin missed his first free throw, then Junior Etou tracked down the rebound and kicked it back out to Taplin who launched a potential game-tying three-pointer just before the buzzer. This time, the shot missed.

“We’ve got a lot of toughness, as well,” Marshall said. “Our kids compete consistently. If they don’t, they sit and watch. We find a way to win on the road. I can’t explain it, other than it’s our culture. We do it every day. We practice hard and we compete. They are tough mentally and physically and they are very talented.

This story was originally published January 14, 2018 at 6:55 AM with the headline "WSU takeaways: Fans 'unbelievable' in helping Shockers win on road."