Play Angry over Havoc: Wichita State basketball improves to 10-1 with win over VCU
Play Angry prevailed over Havoc on Saturday in front of the season’s most raucous crowd at Koch Arena and a national television audience.
Wichita State defeated VCU 73-63 and the 10-1 Shockers have made a compelling case to return to the national rankings Monday for the first time in two seasons.
Not only did WSU even the series with VCU with its third win over the Rams (9-3), but the Shockers exacted revenge for the 70-54 loss in Richmond, Virginia one year ago. Since a 2011 home loss to VCU, WSU has defeated 56 of 57 nonconference opponents at Koch Arena. WSU also ended VCU’s seven-game road winning streak, which was tied with WSU for the second-longest in the country.
“This basketball team, boy, we have been through quite a stretch,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “I knew for down the road, if we keep doing what we want to do, winning two of three would be very important, but winning all three is just icing on the cake.
“Santa came early and he had his sack full of toys and was able to pull it down the chimney and now we get to open them up in the morning. It’s a just wonderful Christmas.
“These guys, man, they’ve made me a very proud coach. And we’re just getting started.”
WSU had four scorers in double-digits in Jaime Echenique (14 points, six rebounds), Grant Sherfield (14 points), Jamarius Burton (10 points, eight rebounds, five assists) and Tyson Etienne (10 points). The Shockers outrebounded VCU by five, including 16 offensive rebounds, and hung on despite 16 turnovers (11 coming in the second half).
Saturday started with ominous news, as WSU announced Dexter Dennis has taken an “indefinite leave of absence” from the team. Dennis, a 6-foot-5 sophomore from Baker, Louisiana, is averaging 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 23.7 minutes per game this season for the Shockers.
If there were worries that news could deflate WSU, the Shockers responded with their most destructive opening stretch all season.
“I just talked to them about what had transpired (Friday) and the fact that Dex is a brother,” Marshall said after the game about his message to the team. “Dex is one of the best teammates you can have. A straight-A student this semester. But he’s struggling and there’s nothing we can do about that. I’m not a doctor.
“We still had a game to play and we needed to tighten our circle and rally around one of our guys who’s hurting a little bit. And they did that beautifully.”
WSU started the game with back-to-back easy baskets by Echenique. That ignited the most electric crowd of the season at Koch Arena and the team and fans fed off each other for a thrill ride during the first four minutes.
Stevenson followed with a three. Trey Wade pulled the rim down for another dunk. Echenique added two free throws and a three-point play. Udeze scored a layup, then Burton capped the furious rally with a pull-up jumper that sent WSU into the first media timeout with an 18-6 lead over VCU. The Shockers scored on their first nine possessions.
“They took it to us from the start and we were playing behind the whole game,” VCU coach Mike Rhoades said. “I thought we played hard and had some opportunities to cut that lead and get back into it, but they made plays. They scrapped out a lot of rebounds and loose balls and that really hurt us today.”
VCU proved resilient early, though. Even with starting center and leading scorer Marcus Santos-Silva strapped with two early fouls, VCU fought through the adversity in a rowdy environment to crawl back to within 29-23 with 6:57 remaining in the first half.
That’s when WSU responded with enough “Play Angry” moments that could have made Xavier McDaniel and Antoine Carr beam with pride.
Burton, in particular, played with more than an edge than usual. He was on the ground for every loose ball and even ripped away a few of them from VCU. On one of those rebounds, Burton wrestled it away and then dumped it to Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler for a basket and a foul.
Not to be out-done, freshman Noah Fernandes brought the Koch Arena crowd to life with a head-first dive to the floor to force a tie-up. After the call, Fernandes leaped to his feet and summoned the crowd for more noise.
“The emphasis for us was to be the tougher team,” Burton said. “We didn’t want them to come into our building and out-tough us. We just went out there and tried to play tougher than them.”
But the WSU crowd didn’t reach its peak until late in the second half when the Shockers came up with three straight offensive rebounds on the same possession, ending with a Burton swish from beyond the perimeter for a 38-25 lead with 4:55 remaining.
“I don’t know about demoralizing, but that was an emphasis going into the game and we didn’t do that,” Rhoades said. “We didn’t carry over the game plan. That’s disappointing because we’re an older team. They had a bigger emphasis on crashing the offensive glass than we had trying to clean up the defensive glass. It was a huge difference, maybe the biggest difference.”
“We were the aggressors, especially early,” Marshall said. “If we missed, we got another chance. That’s how you have to play against VCU. They play so hard and they’re so trained to compete like you’re supposed to compete. That’s why I have such a respect for Mike and their program. That’s our brand, too. I’m not saying we out-competed them, but I am saying we did not take a back seat to them.”
WSU took a 42-30 lead into halftime because the Shockers were able to turn VCU’s full-court pressure against the Rams. WSU finished with 12 offensive rebounds and dominated the turnover battle against VCU, which entered as one of the best in the nation in that regard. WSU scored 12 points off 11 VCU turnovers, while the Rams failed to score off any of WSU’s five turnovers.
“From an experience standpoint, we were stepping up a weight class or two,” Marshall said. “You couldn’t tell it. Our guys were so focused and locked in.”
Out of halftime, WSU pushed the lead to 16 points, thanks to three early three-pointers — one from Stevenson and another two from Etienne — for a 51-35 lead.
When VCU pushed to trim the deficit to 10, Echenique spurred a 6-0 spurt with a hook shot underneath and two straight blocks. Poor Bear-Chandler finished on a slick move, then Echenique’s blocks sprung a WSU fast break that Grant Sherfield finished with a basket and a foul for a 58-41 lead with 9:17 remaining.
VCU trimmed a 17-point deficit down to nine, 69-60, with 2:17 remaining, but WSU was able to come up with an offensive rebound and two free throws by Stevenson to preserve the lead.
“The fans definitely got into it and they were great all night,” Sherfield said. “The fans ignited us and helped get us on a roll and helped us get the win.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2019 at 1:08 PM.
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