WSU takeaways: Landry Shamet’s shooting slump ‘least of my worries’ for Marshall

The story was Austin Reaves’ historic first half, in which he made his first seven three-pointers, but there were many other storylines in No. 17 Wichita State’s 90-71 victory over Tulsa on Sunday at Koch Arena.

On the night WSU improved to 17-4 overall and 7-2 in the American Athletic Conference and registered its 700th win inside Koch Arena, here are five takeaways from the victory:

WSU closes the door on resilient Tulsa team

The knockout punch appeared to be delivered when WSU opened the second half on a 9-0 run – coming from five straight points by Shaquille Morris, then back-to-back jumpers by Markis McDuffie and Landry Shamet – to build a 19-point lead within two minutes.

But just like in Tulsa, the Golden Hurricanes proved resilient. With danger looming, Tulsa reeled off a 17-3 run over the next five minutes to chop WSU’s lead down to 57-52. When WSU pushed the lead back out to 10, Tulsa responded with back-to-back three-pointers by Corey Henderson Jr. and Junior Etou to trim the deficit to 64-60 with nine minutes still remaining.

“They could have taken the lead or gotten it to two and then it was anybody’s game at that point,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “Obviously we made the plays we needed to make.”

Wichita State’s defense produced empty possessions on seven of the next eight trips, while Morris scored four straight, McDuffie canned another jumper, and Zach Brown scored five straight to cap an 11-0 run to restore WSU’s lead to 77-62 with 5:09 remaining.

Tulsa would not come within single-digits for the final five minutes.

“We had the ball there and we didn’t get good looks,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “I think we turned it over and then they hit a big three and then all of a sudden it was back to 10 again. We fought hard, but we just needed to have better possessions there. Our guys were flying around, battling hard.”

Shooting slump continues for Shamet and Frankamp

After leading college basketball with his three-point accuracy and volume midway through the season, Landry Shamet is now mired in the worst shooting slump of his brief career.

Shamet scored six points against Tulsa on Sunday on 1 of 8 shooting, including an 0-for-6 performance beyond the arc. In his last three games, Shamet is 1 for 18 on three-pointers with 17 points.

Shamet has been remarkably consistent with his three-point shot, connecting on at least one in 53 of his 60 career games. After going 0-for-6 on Thursday against Central Florida, Sunday marked the first time Shamet has gone back-to-back games without making a three-pointer.

“That’s probably the least of my worries,” said WSU coach Gregg Marshall. “If we win by 19 and he doesn’t shoot well, then I say, ‘Well, we would have won by a lot more if he would have shot well.’ I think he’ll snap out of it quickly. He’s in the gym. It’s just a little mental right now and he’s letting it bother him obviously. He’s got to get beyond that. He’s a great shooter.”

Conner Frankamp is also going through a dry spell, as his school-record streak of 40 consecutive games with a three-pointer ended with an 0-for-5 performance on Sunday. It was just the third time in Frankamp’s WSU career he finished scoreless and the first time in 52 games (since Nov. 16, 2016 against Tulsa).

In his last three games, Frankamp is 2 for 12 on three-pointers.

“In the end, we get a 19-point win over a good ball club when we get a very poor shooting game from our primary three-point shooters,” Marshall said. “I don’t know what that says, but hopefully it means when they get hot and everybody else stays hot, then we can start doing a little better.”

Outside of Austin Reaves’ three-point explosion, WSU shot 16.6 percent (3 of 18) on three-pointers against Tulsa.

“We know those guys are going to start shooting it well,” Reaves said. “They struggled tonight and the last couple of games, but they’ll get it going soon. We want them to take as many shots as they can when they’re open because we believe in them as a team.”

Shaq swatting his way up the list

After blocking two shots on Sunday, senior Shaquille Morris moved into sole possession of second place in WSU’s record books with 133 career blocks.

“All of my life, I’ve always been a rim protector,” Morris said. “I’m 6-8, but my wingspan is like 7-2. So if our guards get beat off the dribble, I’m just the insurance. I’m just there to clean the little things up and do what I’m supposed to do: protect the rim.”

WSU coach Gregg Marshall said Morris has always had a knack for it, but his shot-blocking has improved in his senior campaign. Morris has blocked a shot in seven straight games and has 19 blocks in his last 10 games.

Morris’ 37 blocks on the season has already exceeded his total (35) from last season in 34 games. He is blocking 9.2 percent of shots while he is on the court, which rates him No. 44 nationally.and the ninth-best among players who are 6-8 or smaller.

“He’s got a lot of experience, a lot of strength and athleticism and explosion off the floor and good timing,” Marshall said. “He’s always been able to do it. Now he’s a very, very explosive, well-timed shot-blocker at this point in his career.”

Kelly leads the glass advantage

Rashard Kelly scored just four points, but had one of the largest impacts on the game with his game-high 11 rebounds, including six offensive, and game-high eight assists to go along with two blocks and two steals.

It was the third consecutive game Kelly has finished with double-digit rebounds and the seventh time this season. He is grabbing 17.2 percent of possible offensive rebounds while he’s on the court, which is the third-best mark in the country.

“He’s going to do the dirty work and he’s going to get offensive rebounds,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “He’s a pass-first guy who likes to set ball screens. Likes to set fade screens and down screens for our shooters. He knows he doesn’t have the prettiest jumper, but he’s still an effective player for us and he helps us win in many ways.”

WSU grabbed 39.5 percent of its own misses, which translated to 15 offensive rebounds, tied for its third-highest rate this season. Although WSU had a below-average performance keeping Tulsa off its own offensive glass, the Shockers still won the rebounding battle for the 18th time this season.

Rauno Nurger pulled down seven rebounds in 14 minutes, while Shaquille Morris turned four offensive rebounds into three put-back dunks.

“They hurt us on the glass,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “Give them credit: they’re a terrific team and they played like a team that is one of the best teams in the country today.”

What’s up next?

Following two poor defensive showings and two losses, Wichita State returned home and did what it needed to do to produce 19-point victories over Central Florida and Tulsa this past week.

While the defense is still nowhere close to its former elite level, WSU held UCF to 0.90 points per possession and Tulsa to 0.98 – a step in the right direction. Next up the Shockers (17-4, 7-2 AAC) will travel to Temple (11-10, 3-6) on Thursday to face an offense rated ninth out of 12 teams in efficiency in conference play.

“We needed to get back to feeling confident in what we do,” WSU senior Shaquille Morris said. “The grind isn’t going to stop. The practices are still going to be what it is. We needed to keep getting better and these two games were much needed.”

Austin Reaves said the two-game losing skid against SMU and Houston brought the team even closer together.

“When you’re surrounded with a group of guys like this, even through the adversity that hit us like last week, it’s still a joy to be around these guys,” Reaves said. “When you hit adversity, you’ve got to find the little things that are positive out of it and grow from it. It’s amazing to be apart of this team and be around these guys every day.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 10:51 AM with the headline "WSU takeaways: Landry Shamet’s shooting slump ‘least of my worries’ for Marshall."