Landry Shamet makes splashy return as WSU rolls Newman in exhibition

An online report early Monday said Gregg Marshall had told national media that Landry Shamet would not play in Wichita State’s Monday night hurricane-relief exhibition against Newman.

Not only did Shamet surprise his coach by playing, but the sophomore point guard looked more than ready to play in Friday’s season opener with his limited minutes in Monday’s 113-55 victory at Koch Arena. Shamet is recovering from offseason surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot.

Shamet came off the bench to play 12 minutes in three spurts, making all three shot attempts to score eight points. He connected on a pair of three-pointers (the last with a hand in his face), while adding two assists (including an alley-oop lob to Shaquille Morris) and two rebounds. Wichita State outscored Newman by 19 points in Shamet’s nine minutes, a team-high in the first half.

Originally, Marshall said the goal for Shamet was to play between five and 10 minutes in one exhibition game. That plan seemed in doubt after Saturday’s exhibition, when Marshall said Shamet reported ankle soreness after returning to practice last week. But on Monday, Shamet exceeded those expectations by playing 12 minutes without a setback.

The lone negative for Wichita State from the game was that it allowed Newman to stay within six points after 14 minutes. Newman’s Ben Ayre scored 11 points to keep the Jets in the game, much to the chagrin of Marshall.

But the Shockers eventually out-classed their NCAA Division II foe, scoring on 12 of their final 13 possessions to close out the first half that resulted in a 27-4 run and 61-32 halftime lead. The advantage ballooneed quickly in the second half after the Shockers held Newman without a basket for nearly seven minutes.

It took Wichita State a little over 16 minutes of game action to turn a six-point lead into a 50-point lead.

Rauno Nurger led all scorers with 16 points off the bench for Wichita State on 6-of-8 shooting. The Shockers also had double-digit scorers Darral Willis (13 points), Samajae Haynes-Jones (12), Austin Reaves (10), and Zach Brown (10).

Freshman Asbjorn Midtgaard impressed in the first half, scoring nine points.

Wichita State was again without sophomore guard CJ Keyser, who also sat out Saturday’s exhibition in street clothes. WSU released a statement before Saturday’s game that Keyser “has personal issues that need to be resolved before he can participate.” No update was immediately available following Monday’s game.

This story was originally published November 6, 2017 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Landry Shamet makes splashy return as WSU rolls Newman in exhibition."