Sunday special: WSU surges ahead to sixth-place in AAC with road win over SMU
If Wichita State makes a run in the American Athletic Conference in two weeks, the Shockers will be able to pinpoint Sunday’s result as the moment when they put themselves in the best position to do so.
Hours after South Florida lost in the closing moments on the road to Connecticut, Wichita State took care of business on its road trip with a convincing 67-55 beating of SMU at Moody Coliseum on the Mustangs’ senior night. Winners of seven of their last nine, the Shockers (15-13, 8-8 AAC) surged ahead of USF (18-11, 7-9 AAC) and now control their destiny to lock up the No. 6 seed in the AAC tournament.
That’s important because not only would WSU have a much easier first-round draw in Memphis, but it would also mean the Shockers wouldn’t play Houston or Cincinnati in the quarterfinals.
Of course, WSU has to now take care of 11th-place East Carolina at home on Tuesday and winless Tulane on Saturday. The Shockers shouldn’t have an issue if they play like they did on Sunday. After losing its first six road games by an average of 16.8 points, WSU has recovered to win three of its last four road trips.
“We’re getting better,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “You have this many new guys and if you keep working, which we have, and if they keep listening, which they have, they’re inevitably going to get better. We just have to keep grinding.”
WSU finished shooting a tick below 40 percent (39.7 to be exact) and its two seniors, Markis McDuffie and Samajae Haynes-Jones, finished with 20 points on 22 shots. A poor shooting performance like that would have doomed the Shockers earlier in the season.
Sunday was a sign of growth, McDuffie said, as the Shockers found a way to “win ugly.” WSU held SMU to 36.5-percent shooting from the floor, as the Mustangs missed 23 of 26 three-pointers.
“Whether we’re making shots or not, we can win ugly and that’s something we couldn’t do in the beginning,” McDuffie said. “We know how much better we’ve gotten. It’s just a consistent mindset now. We’ve put in a lot of hard work and now everybody is improving and everybody knows what it takes to win.”
Freshman Dexter Dennis logged another impressive effort with 12 points and seven rebounds, while freshman Erik Stevenson dished out a career-high six assists and freshman Jamarius Burton had 10 points, four rebounds and five assists.
WSU hasn’t won a road game where it has trailed at halftime, so strong first halves are key. The Shockers played one of their strongest this season, as they made 53.3 percent of their shots in the first half, led by as many as 17 and took a 41-28 lead into halftime.
The Shockers used an 11-0 run to build a 22-10 lead, with Dennis and Jaime Echenique combining to score all 11 points. When SMU rallied to trim WSU’s lead to 24-20, Ricky Torres helped change the momentum with a jumper and assist for a three-point play to Asbjorn Midtgaard. Two jumpers from Samajae Haynes-Jones later, WSU’s lead was back to 34-20.
“Being on the bench, I can see what needs to happen when I come in,” Torres said. “I saw we were a little stagnant at times, so when I came in I wanted to up the tempo and try to push it since they were in that zone.”
WSU’s lead peaked when Dennis stroked in his second three-pointer to stake the Shockers to a 41-24 lead with 1:55 remaining. Dennis finished the first half shooting 4-for-4, while Jamarius Burton and Erik Stevenson each dished out four assists.
On defense, WSU changed how it guarded SMU’s pair of perimeter-shooting bigs in Ethan Chargois and Isiaha Mike, who combined for 41 points in the first game. Instead of asking WSU’s bigger and slower-footed centers to guard Chargois, WSU guarded Chargois and Mike with its two forwards, then stuck its center on whoever it deemed the best available matchup.
“They were kind of messing with matchups and playing a little unconventional,” SMU coach Tim Jankovich said. “They didn’t just put their biggest guy on (Chargois), in fact they rarely did that.”
The tweak made a huge impact in how SMU operated on offense. Instead of the clean looks it found in Wichita, SMU had to force more contested shots from the perimeter. The result was 2-for-15 shooting in the first half and Mike and Chargois combining for 12 points.
“We changed a few things up and we were more locked in,” Dennis said. “We watched film and saw how many open looks we gave them and how we could have easily fixed it with better communication or just us going harder. We made those changes and it worked.”
WSU would hold a double-digit lead for the final 25 minutes of the game.
The closest SMU came was when it cut WSU’s lead to 41-30 in the first minute of the second half, but that was answered by a Burton offensive rebound and putback for a three-point play. Echenique followed the next possession with a basket and just like that, WSU restored its lead to 46-30.
The lead swelled to as many as 20 in the second half when freshman Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler drilled just his third three-pointer of the season and redshirt freshman Rod Brown drove and finished an impressive up-and-under for a 56-36 lead with 10:39 remaining.
SMU trimmed the deficit to 12 points, 65-53, with 4:08 remaining, but the Shockers scored on a McDuffie layup and finished two straight defensive stops to end the rally.
“We’re getting better on defense,” McDuffie said. “When our shots aren’t falling, we’re still able to bring it on defense and we’re getting back to that Shocker way.”
If the standings hold in the final week of the regular season, WSU would play East Carolina in the first round of the AAC tournament in Memphis. If the Shockers win that game, they would play UCF, a team they beat 75-67 at Koch Arena on Jan. 16.
WSU also became the first team in AAC history to finish with more than seven wins in conference play after a 1-6 start. The Shockers, now 8-8, have won seven of their last nine. SMU dropped to 13-15 and 5-11 in AAC play, as the Mustangs have lost eight of their last nine.
“Our team played pretty well on the road,” Marshall said. “We weren’t spectacular in any way, but it was good enough to win on the road against a good program like SMU.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2019 at 3:03 PM.
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