Samajae does it again: WSU senior scores game-winner to lift WSU over UConn
Samajae Haynes-Jones did it again.
The Wichita senior rescued Wichita State with another improbable game-winning shot in American Athletic Conference play, as the Shockers erased a 10-point, second-half deficit and beat Connecticut 65-63 at Koch Arena on Thursday.
It was a pivotal game for the Shockers’ chances of pushing for a No. 6 seed at the American Athletic Conference tournament. WSU improved to 14-13 overall and 7-8 in conference play, which brings it in a tie with South Florida for sixth place. UConn lost its sixth straight game and fell to 13-15 overall and 4-11 in AAC play.
Haynes-Jones, who hit the game-winner over SMU, finished with a team-high 20 points and helped deliver coach Gregg Marshall his 300th career win with the Shockers.
“Back in the day, it was ‘Big Shot Bob’ with Robert Horry from the LA Lakers,” Marshall said. “We’re going to start calling him ‘Big Shot Samaj.’”
With 6.4 seconds remaining and the score tied, WSU gave Haynes-Jones the ball and cleared out the entire right side of the floor for him to attack. UConn opted to not pick him up until halfcourt, as Haynes-Jones made easy work of UConn’s Christian Vital, beating him in a foot race up the right side and cleanly releasing a 15-foot jumper with his left hand fading hard to his right. The shot curled into the rim for the win.
“I knew it was a bucket,” Haynes-Jones said. “It wasn’t no question, I promise.”
Moments earlier in the huddle during the timeout, Haynes-Jones made his voice heard before the coaches could even design a play.
“I want it,” Haynes-Jones said looking into the eyes of Marshall. There was an air of confidence that Marshall loved and if there was ever a question of who to give the ball to, Haynes-Jones erased it with those three words.
“I said I wanted to do it and I did it,” Haynes-Jones said.
A game-winner didn’t seem necessary when Markis McDuffie, who scored 19 points, gave WSU a 63-57 lead with 1:06 remaining with a three-pointer. But UConn found an improbable response, as sophomore guard Alterique Gilbert leveled the score at 63 with six seconds remaining on back-to-back threes over defenders. The shot to tie it came five feet beyond the arc with Gilbert’s legs flailing in the air after he released.
But Haynes-Jones’ heroics spoiled the night for the Huskies, who have now lost all eight road games this season.
“We’ll take a win wherever we can get one right now,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “A road win, a home win, we’re just trying to break through and get a win.”
Minutes earlier, Haynes-Jones stood his ground to take a crucial charge on a fastbreak where it appeared UConn was set to take the lead. Instead, the charge preserved WSU’s 58-57 lead and allowed it to tack on two more points on the following possession.
“When the games turn to clutch time, we have to make big plays,” Haynes-Jones said. “Taking charges is a big one. I had to step up. The first time he drove, I missed it. The second one I had to get.”
It wasn’t until a burst from sophomore center Asbjorn Midtgaard, who finished with four points, five rebounds and a career-high four blocks, that the Shockers strung together solid play.
In a 42-second span, Midtgaard did the following:
- Bailed the Shockers out with a last-second layup on a pass from Haynes-Jones out of the pick roll for a 47-46 lead.
- Smothered a Sidney Wilson drive by extending an arm outside his body to trap the ball.
- Swatted an Alterique Gilbert up-and-under shot to start a fastbreak.
- Sprinted the floor, received a dump-off pass from Burton and tried to pull the rim down for a 49-46 lead as the crowd exploded.
It seemed like before that any time WSU did have a chance to extend a run, it would have an excruciating miss at the rim, fail to generate the defensive stop it needed or miss the shot that would have sent the fans into a frenzy.
As when Midtgaard swatted a UConn shot at the rim, but Dennis missed the layup on the other end. Or when Haynes-Jones hit a three to trim the deficit to six, Erik Stevenson stole the ball, whipped a behind-the-back pass to Dennis on the fastbreak but Dennis’ three-pointer rattled out. Seconds later, UConn drilled a three and extended its lead.
But that’s when Midtgaard went on his tear, flipped the game and spurred the Shockers to the victory.
For a team that claimed to be improving and desperate to end the regular season playing its best basketball, it was hard to tell from the Shockers’ first-half performance.
The 6 p.m. start time made for an emptier-than-usual Koch Arena, although the announced attendance of 10,026 extended WSU’s streak to 225 straight games with at least 10,000 sold tickets, and the play on the court did nothing to energize the crowd.
Even when McDuffie made a step-back jumper that put WSU up 12-5 with 10:08 remaining, the crowd didn’t respond as usual. That’s because WSU failed to make two straight shots other than its first two of the half and its final two.
In between, the Shockers managed to play some of its worst offense of the season. Dribbles seemingly tripled passes. Passion was seemingly void. The cuts were made without an end goal in mind, so were the passes.
Take away the first two and final two possessions and WSU scored 13 points on 26 possessions. The Shockers missed 22 of 25 shots on those possessions and committed four turnovers.
For the first 10 minutes, WSU didn’t pay for its poor offensive play. It was doing well to force UConn into an even more miserable start, but eventually the Huskies started to make shots. At one point, UConn made seven straight to reel off a 17-3 run.
When WSU finally pieced together what began to resemble momentum, as Haynes-Jones made a pair of free throws to trim UConn’s lead to 24-20 with 1:59 remaining, the Shockers immediately gave up a three-pointer then Echenique was whistled for his second three-second lane violation. Just like that, Koch Arena went flat.
WSU’s final spurt just before halftime helped trim UConn’s nine-point lead down to 27-22, but not even a fiery Marshall halftime speech, which has sparked this team before, could inject WSU with energy.
Haynes-Jones hit a three to cut UConn’s lead to 27-25 right after halftime, but then the Shockers gave up a 10-2 run and allowed UConn to take a 37-27 lead before the first media timeout.
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 8:18 PM.
.jpg)