Taylor’s takeaways: A full-court press helps Shockers turn over Cal

By now, you’ve surely heard that No. 6 Wichita State was able to rally from 18 points down to escape with a 92-82 victory over California at the Lahaina Civic Center in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Monday.

The Shockers (3-0) advance to the semifinals to play Marquette (2-1) at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.

So how did they do it?

Down 58-40 with less than 16 minutes to play, Wichita State flipped the game around by switching to a full-court pressing defense.

The final 34 possessions of the game would tell the story: Wichita State outscored California 50-26.

Shaquille Morris (25 points) and Landry Shamet (23) will be in the headlines because of their combined 48 points, but the play of Rashard Kelly (six points, 10 rebounds) and Rauno Nurger (11 points, six rebounds) deserves credit as well.

Wichita State shot just 42 percent in the second half, but was able to pull off the remarkable comeback because it pulled down half of its missed shots for 24 offensive rebounds (Kelly had seven, Nurger had five) and committed two turnovers in 42 second-half possessions.

In those 34 possessions, Cal turned the ball over nearly a third of the time (11 turnovers) and the times it did get up a shot, the Bears mustered 28-percent shooting.

Here are some other takeaways from Wichita State’s come-from-behind victory from Monday:

WSU presses for success

The full-court press is not a tool Marshall regularly uses. Wichita State’s half-court defense has been one of the most efficient in the nation for years.

But staring down an 18-point deficit, switching to a full-time press was the only option he had. Pressing for 16 straight minutes is not necessarily something WSU practices, but conditioning and depth allowed the Shockers to pull it off.

It all started with seniors Rashard Kelly and Rauno Nurger’s length at the top of the press against Cal’s guards. They were quick to trap and their long wingspans forced ball handlers to loft passes over them, which allowed for WSU’s guards to swoop in for the steal.

“We were relentless,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t about always going for the steal, it was more about just not letting the other team get comfortable.”

Marshall knew Wichita State needed to prolong the game and Cal played right into that strategy with quick possessions.

“The way the game was going and the way we were playing, we just needed it to be as long of a second half as possible,” Marshall said. “We needed it to be as many possessions as possible.”

Shamet credited the press for injecting energy into an otherwise lifeless team that was faced with its first sizable deficit in nearly a year.

Wichita State finished with 11 steals, including four by Zach Brown and three by Conner Frankamp, as California had 19 turnovers.

“When we switched to the press, you’re flying around and it’s easy to get energy going,” Shamet said. “We knew the game changed when we started doing that.”

Kelly said that the team sensed in the second half that California’s ball handlers were becoming hesitant with the ball. WSU’s defense thrives on indecision.

“That’s what we live off of,” Kelly said. “That’s our bread and butter and something we always have in our back pocket.”

The team was pleased with how effective it was, but disappointed it came to that.

“I was disappointed in the way we played in the first half,” Marshall said. “But the thing that has made this program pretty good over the years is the grit and the determination. We really showed that in the second half, but we’ve got to play better.”

The Shaq attack

When Wichita State had erased most of its 18-point deficit in the closing minutes, it still needed that final push to close the gap.

Senior Shaquille Morris was the answer.

Morris started the surge to finally tie the game with two free throws followed an acrobatic scoop shot that fell and turned into a three-point play. Samajae Haynes-Jones raced downcourt and finished with a finger-roll layup in transition to tie it at 76, the first time WSU hadn’t trailed since the game’s opening minutes.

Then Morris also played closer, as he scored a layup with 3:36 to go to tie the game at 80, then hit a free-throw line jumper to give the Shockers their first lead of the second half. He followed with another jumper, then Brown finished on an ambitious foray in the lane.

In less than 90 seconds, Wichita State had gone from trailing 80-78 to leading 86-80.

Morris used eight possessions in the final nine minutes, scoring 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting and perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the foul line. Morris finished with a team-high 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting.

“Big Shaq was a monster for us,” Kelly said. “He was everywhere. He’s hard to stop when he’s like that.”

Poor shooting not a concern

Making Wichita State’s 28-point scorching of Cal in the final 16 minutes even more impressive is that it did it with below-average shooting.

The Shockers finished shooting 41 percent for the game and 24 percent (6 of 25) from beyond the arc. In the second half, WSU shot 42 percent from the field and made 1 of 12 three-pointers.

Two of the team’s best shooters, Conner Frankamp and Austin Reaves, combined for 2 of 13 three-point shooting.

“You don’t want to play those guys in a game of H-O-R-S-E, but today they couldn’t buy one,” Marshall said.

Marshall said he didn’t have an issue with shot selection. They were taking mostly rhythm shots, they just weren’t falling.

“I kept thinking and encouraging Conner, ‘The next one is going in, son,’ ” Marshall said. “I really believed that. But it didn’t. He couldn’t get one to fall. I thought he was going to make a big one to give us a lead and put us over the top, but it never did happen. I still want him shooting the ball.”

Exacerbating the issue was Cal’s hot-shooting start. The Bears matched their season-high in three-pointers in the first eight minutes and made 10 of 19 (52.6 percent) for the game, a marked improvement for a team that entered making only 35-percent from beyond the arc.

“I can’t really explain it other than it was like an outer-body experience in the first half,” Marshall said. “We didn’t play great defense, but it was like their shots would hit the rim and it would be bouncing off and then all of a sudden the basket would suck it back in.

“Then on the other end, we got wide-open shots for really good shooters and they didn’t even come close.”

The Don Coleman Show

The Cal scoring guard was priority No. 1 on the Wichita State scouting report coming off of back-to-back 30-point performances into the tournament.

But no matter which defense Wichita State had on Coleman, he was able to get to whatever spot he wanted on the floor for a basket. The 6-foot-3 junior eviscerated the 11th-most efficient defense in the first half, scoring 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting to give California a 47-38 halftime lead.

“He was really aggressive getting downhill and we knew he was going to do whatever it took to get to the rim,” Shamet said. “We had some problems with him. We did a better job in the second half, but hats off to him. He’s a good player.”

But when Wichita State started pressing, Cal struggled to funnel the ball to its supreme scorer like it did in the first half. In those final 16 minutes, Coleman scored seven points on 2-of-9 shooting with a pair of turnovers.

Coleman finished with a career-high 35 points on 12-of-25 shooting and four turnovers.

Early start not a concern

Wichita State dismissed any concern with an 8:30 a.m. local time start to Tuesday’s semifinal game against Marquette.

“I can play in three hours, I don’t care,” Marshall said following Monday’s game. “I’ve taken enough aspirin in the last two hours, so I’m pretty good. I’m pain-free. I’m ready to go whenever you want to tip it up.”

Shamet said the players still are on Central time. Tuesday’s game starts at 12:30 p.m. in Wichita.

“I’m still waking up at like 5 or 6 in the morning over here,” Shamet said. “I’m on Kansas time. I don’t think it will be an issue for us.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Taylor’s takeaways: A full-court press helps Shockers turn over Cal."