Grant Sherfield spurs Wichita State with late rally to beat Oklahoma for 9-1 start
When Wichita State was in peril, trailing in the second half against Oklahoma, freshman Grant Sherfield, a Wichita native, was there with the best stretch of his career to rescue the Shockers.
Sherfield finished with 14 points (12 coming in the final eight minutes) to push the Shockers to an electric 80-75 victory over the Sooners at INTRUST Bank Arena on Saturday. WSU won on back-to-back weekends over a Big 12 opponent to improve to 9-1 and continue to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume, while OU dropped to 8-2.
It was quite the reversal from last December when the Sooners beat WSU by 32 and won the rebounding battle by 17 in Oklahoma City. On Saturday, WSU used a plus-17 rebounding advantage to pick up the win.
“What a difference a year makes,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “Last year we went down there with Markis (McDuffie) and Samajae (Haynes-Jones) and a bunch of newbies and got our... head handed to us. We didn’t have the resolve and the toughness to compete with Oklahoma. They took us to the woodshed. There’s probably a handful of times since I’ve been the coach here, maybe in my life, have I ever felt that way on the sideline.
“To have the opportunity to watch our team demonstrate the resolve and the toughness (Saturday) was just a testament to them and how they’ve grown and how they know now what it takes to win against a very talented and well-coached team in Oklahoma.”
WSU evened the recent series with the win on Saturday, as both teams have now split the last four meetings. WSU has also won eight of 10 games at the downtown Wichita arena, including the last two.
But that didn’t look likely with the Shockers’ offense bogged down and trailing 56-48 with 11:25 remaining in the second half. That’s when Sherfield brought WSU back from its grave.
He scored or assisted on eight points during the game-changing 12-0 run that took the Shockers from down eight to up four and sent the INTRUST Bank Arena into hysteria. Not only that, but Sherfield’s change-of-pace seemed to inject WSU with the confidence to close out the victory. Sherfield made all six of his free throws in the final 70 seconds, as well.
“He played his best basketball he’s played,” Marshall said. “I don’t care about Central Arkansas or the other game he led us in scoring. (Saturday) was by far his best game because he shined in a huge moment.”
Although OU briefly took the lead, 66-64, in the final three minutes, fellow freshman Tyson Etienne stepped up and drilled a clutch corner three for the 67-66 lead with 2:30 remaining. WSU did not trail after that. OU rallied to within three points on two separate occasions, but WSU made 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch to close out the victory.
WSU outscored OU 32-19 in the final 11 minutes to close out the victory.
The Shockers outrebounded OU, 48-31, and outscored OU 34-12 in the paint and 31-9 on bench points. Erik Stevenson (16 points, seven rebounds, two blocks), Sherfield (14 points) and Trey Wade (11 points, 15 rebounds) led the way for WSU as double-digit scorers. Wade’s 15 rebounds were the most by a Shocker since Ron Baker grabbed 15 boards in a win over Evansville on Feb. 22, 2015.
“It was a game of runs and it seemed like every shot they threw up was going in,” Stevenson said. “We couldn’t catch a break for the first 33 minutes of the game. It was kind of frustrating seeing all of those shots go in. But we made that 4-0 run, then the 8-0 run and it was crazy to see the bounce-back from last year.”
It was the return game in Wichita for Austin Reaves, the 6-foot-5 guard who transferred from WSU following the 2017-18 season to OU. After sitting out last year’s game in Oklahoma City, Reaves was on the floor on Saturday and was booed by the WSU crowd throughout the game and cheered raucously whenever he missed a shot. Reaves finished with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting to go along with six rebounds and four assists.
Instead, OU continued its annual tradition against the Shockers of using its big men to burn WSU on the perimeter. This year it was center Kristian Doolittle, who scored a game-high 22 points with a season-best four three-pointers. The other OU big, Brady Manek, made all four of his threes for 14 points.
Sherfield sparked the 12-0 run by penetrating and looking to make the dump-off pass or finishing in the paint. He forced OU to call a timeout when he drove and dished it off to Jaime Echenique, who scored on back-to-back trips to start the run.
After Wade and Jamarius Burton scored on layups to tie the game at 56-56, Sherfield got it done two more times on acrobatic finishes, first a fall-away bank shot and then on a pull-up floater to cap a 12-0 run and put WSU up 60-56 with 7:24 remaining.
“Coach was telling me as a point guard we’ve got to get to the paint and try to touch paint on every possession to try to create something,” Sherfield said. “So I just tried to touch paint every time and create for my teammates and if that’s not open, then finish the shot.”
But OU again rallied with its three-point shot. Doolittle and Brady Manek drilled back-to-back threes to put the Sooners up 66-64 with 3:38 remaining setting up the thrilling finish in front of a season-high crowd of 10,727 at INTRUST Bank Arena.
“Fantastic. Tremendous. Love it, always have,” Marshall said. “The people that come to this game buy a ticket and they’re here to be entertained. They’re here to have fun and vibe and get after it. Hopefully we gave them a good show. I really appreciate Shocker Nation showing up like that.”
The first half was one of missed opportunities for the Shockers.
Stevenson and Burton drilled back-to-back triples in the first three minutes to put WSU up 8-3. OU missed 7 of its first 8 shots, cracking the door for WSU to extend its lead even further. Dexter Dennis and Stevenson drilled a pair of threes, but WSU couldn’t push its lead past eight.
Allowed to hang around, OU shot its way back in the game with Manek capping a 9-0 run with a corner three-pointer to put the Sooners on top 15-14 with 9:58 remaining. WSU responded with a 6-0 run, as Wade scored four straight and Stevenson found a rolling Echenique for a thunderous dunk and a foul for a 20-15 lead with 7:46 remaining.
Despite the best efforts of Stevenson, who poured in 12 points on four three-pointers with three rebounds, one assist, two blocks and a steal by halftime, WSU let its lead slip away because it once again struggled to contain the Sooners on the perimeter.
Doolittle, who had only attempted eight threes in OU’s first eight games, fired away on three triples and made all three of them. WSU chose to stick its center on Doolittle rather than Manek, gambling that Doolittle could not hurt them as much on the perimeter. That theory didn’t play out, as Doolittle scored 15 points before halftime and swished the final three just before halftime to put the Sooners on top 37-33.
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 7:04 PM.
.jpg)