Shocker report: WSU 78, Missouri St. 63
Saturday’s box
No. 21 WICHITA ST. 78, MISSOURI ST. 63
Missouri St. | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | A | F | Pt |
Church | 22 | 3-5 | 0-1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
Johnson | 39 | 5-11 | 3-6 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 16 |
Rhodes | 11 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Dixon | 37 | 6-15 | 6-6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 20 |
Miller | 38 | 2-13 | 0-0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Kendrix | 28 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
Martin | 8 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
McCullough | 8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Kreklow | 7 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ruder | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals | 200 | 22-58 | 11-16 | 28 | 14 | 18 | 63 |
Percentages: FG .379, FT .688. 3-Point Goals: 8-28, .286 (Johnson 3-8, Dixon 2-4, Kendrix 1-3, Rhodes 1-3, Miller 1-8, Kreklow 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: 10 (0 PTS). Blocked Shots: 4 (Church 2, Johnson, Kendrix). Turnovers: 10 (Church 5, Dixon 2, Miller 2, Martin). Steals: 4 (Kendrix 3, Church). Technical Fouls: None.
Wichita St. | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | A | F | Pt |
Brown | 25 | 0-1 | 4-4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
McDuffie | 26 | 5-10 | 2-2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 15 |
Morris | 26 | 6-12 | 9-10 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 21 |
Frankamp | 35 | 6-14 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 18 |
Shamet | 32 | 1-6 | 0-0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Kelly | 22 | 1-4 | 2-2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Willis | 10 | 2-3 | 2-2 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Reaves | 9 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Nurger | 9 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Smith | 6 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Keyser | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals | 200 | 24-54 | 20-21 | 36 | 9 | 18 | 78 |
Percentages: FG .444, FT .952. 3-Point Goals: 10-20, .500 (Frankamp 6-12, McDuffie 3-3, Shamet 1-3, Brown 0-1, Kelly 0-1). Team Rebounds: 4. Team Turnovers: 12 (0 PTS). Blocked Shots: 2 (Morris, Shamet). Turnovers: 12 (Willis 3, Morris 2, Shamet 2, Brown, Frankamp, Kelly, McDuffie, Smith). Steals: 4 (McDuffie 2, Morris, Smith). Technical Fouls: None.
Missouri St. | 34 | 29 | — | 63 |
Wichita St. | 37 | 41 | — | 78 |
No rest, no problem
The Shocker will play their third game in three days on Sunday.
It’s a scenario one of the nation’s deepest teams prepared for all season.
“We worked hard for this,” WSU junior Rashard Kelly said. “You only mentally get fatigued. If you only get mentally fatigued, there’s no such thing as fatigue.”
Conner Frankamp led WSU with 35 minutes on Sunday. Landry Shamet played 32. No other Shocker played more than 26.
“I feel fresh,” center Rauno Nurger said. “I think we’re doing good because we play a lot of players.”
The Shockers planned to study video on Saturday night and again Sunday.
No. 1 vs. No. 2
Sunday’s title game is the 16th meeting of top seeds in tournament history. Top seeds won six of those, most recently in 2014 when WSU defeated Indiana State 83-69.
Box him out
Missouri State’s Alize Johnson is the Missouri Valley Conference’s best rebounder and capable of demoralizing a defense with second-chance points.
A week earlier, he grabbed six offensive rebounds against the Shockers at JQH Arena. On Saturday, he finished with three, one of those too later to matter.
“I just had to anticipate the shot and make sure I check him out every time,” WSU’s Markis McDuffie said. “It was tough boxing him out, but I want to win.”
The Bears out-rebounded WSU by seven and two in the regular-season meetings. WSU out-rebounded MSU 39-30 in the tournament rematch.
New looks
The Bears kept the game at their preferred pace by changing defenses often.
While the Shockers scored 78 points, the game lacked their usual smooth offensive exchanges.
“They had a pretty good defensive game-plan,” Frankamp said. “The switched it up from zone to man pretty quickly. If we threw it to the high post, they went to man right away. It kind of took us a little bit to get adjusted to that.”
Shamet missed 5 of 6 shots and scored three points. In two tournament games, he is 2 for 11 from the field and 2 for 8 from three-point range.
Worth noting
Shamet and Frankamp extended their three-pointer streak. Shamet made one in his 22nd straight game, No. 3 in program history. Frankamp is at 19, fourth behind Shamet. Ron Baker owns the No. 1 (27) and No. 2 (25) streaks…. WSU extended its series lead to 42-30, 5-4 in the tournament.
Paul Suellentrop: 316-269-6760, @paulsuellentrop
MVC Tournament
Scottrade Center, St. Louis
Thursday
- Evansville 83, Ind. St. 72
- Bradley 67, Drake 58
Friday
- Ill. St. 80, Evansville 69
- SIU 55, Loyola 50
- WSU 82, Bradley 56
- MSU 70, N. Iowa 64
Saturday
- Illinois St. 63, SIU 50
- WSU 78, MSU 63
Sunday
- 1 p.m. — Championship (CBS)
This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Shocker report: WSU 78, Missouri St. 63."