Pretty in pink: Jaime Echenique superb again, leads Wichita State to third straight win
In his third-to-final game at Koch Arena in his college career, Wichita State senior Jaime Echenique is making those games count.
Echenique delivered another first-team, all-conference-type performance on Thursday at Koch Arena in helping Wichita State win its third straight game and clinch its 11th straight 20-win season in a 65-55 victory over South Florida.
Echenique, a 6-foot-11 senior center, tied his career-high with 20 points and added nine rebounds, two assists, four blocks and two steals in a dominant two-way performance in 30 minutes.
After Wednesday’s mayhem in the American Athletic Conference, the Shockers (20-6, 8-5 AAC) move into a tie for fourth place with SMU. WSU is now just one game back in the loss column to second-place Cincinnati with a road date with the Bearcats coming on Sunday. USF, meanwhile, fell to 11-15 overall and 4-9 in conference play.
“We weren’t at our best, but we were good enough to win against them by 10,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “That’s all I care about.”
Echenique was WSU’s most consistent source of offense and USF could do little to stop him, outside of fouling. Echenique made and shot a career-high in free throws with his 10-for-12 performance from the foul line. On defense, Echenique was a deterrent to USF’s attempts to attack at the rim throughout the game.
“I was being real aggressive in the paint doing aggressive moves where they didn’t have any response besides fouling all the time,” Echenique said. “I just had to keep being aggressive.”
Jamarius Burton added 14 points and four assists for the Shockers, while Tyson Etienne had 10 points and Dexter Dennis finished with nine points. WSU also out-shot USF from the foul line — typically a strength for the Bulls — with the Shockers going 21 for 26 from the foul line and USF going 9 for 16.
WSU relied on another grind-it-out defensive performance to overcome 35.2% shooting from the field and 27.3% shooting on three-pointers. The Shockers held USF to 36.2% shooting from the field and 21.1% from deep, which helped them offset USF winning points in the paint (28-20), the rebounding battle (39-36), second-chance points (14-5), points off turnovers (16-10) and fast break (13-10).
“I didn’t like our energy in the first half,” Marshall said. “There was more in the tank. I don’t know why we were on our heels a little bit. I thought they were the aggressors. They were beating us in the paint. They were outrebounding us. Those stats just don’t jive with me anytime, especially at home in a big game. We’ve got to be better at that.”
Echenique was at his best in the first half when WSU struggled on the whole. He finished with 12 points and four blocks in the half. He even showed off his passing skills early in the second half when he dribbled into what looked like another jump hook, only to dump it off at the last moment for a Burton slam dunk that extended WSU’s lead to 38-29. Echenique even ran down the court with his hands over his eyes to celebrate his vision.
That didn’t mean there weren’t some nervous moments in the second half, like when WSU’s offense went cold and USF tied the game at 40-40 with 11 minutes, 44 seconds remaining.
Dennis came through in the clutch twice to restore WSU’s cushion. He first drained a three-pointer that broke the 40-40 tie, then swished another shot from deep in the corner that extended WSU’s lead to 50-45 with 4:56 remaining.
“Every time we made a minor defensive error, they took advantage of it,” USF coach Brian Gregory said.
Echenique added a three-point play, and two free throws by Burton pushed WSU’s lead to 57-47 with 2:47 to play, which essentially iced the game. Echenique looked as if he played most of the second half on a sprained ankle and had to exit the game with 59 seconds left in discomfort. He said afterward that he would be fine, however.
Whatever it is about USF, it seems to bring out a slug fest with WSU. The two teams combined for 99 and 95 points in its last two meetings, and Thursday’s game began much in the same manner, as the Shockers only had an Asbjorn Midtgaard hook shot as their only points through nearly the first six minutes.
“We were sloppy,” Marshall said. “We missed some wide-open guys. We took some shots when there was probably a slightly better shot with an extra pass. We turned the ball over a couple of times. We missed a couple of defensive assignments. Give South Florida a lot of credit. They’re a tough and well-coached team.”
WSU fell behind 9-2 before its offense finally came alive, reeling off a 13-2 run that featured a go-ahead three-pointer by Erik Stevenson and eight points from Echenique. But the Shockers never could produce another run to create sizable separation.
When WSU went up 15-11, USF answered with a 7-0 run of its own. When WSU went up 20-18, USF rallied to take a 24-22 lead. It wasn’t until the final four minutes when the Shockers opened up their largest lead of the game.
Burton broke a 27-27 tie with a pull-up jumper, then finished a contested layup and then Etienne drilled a three-pointer. WSU took a 34-29 lead into halftime, despite shooting 36.7 percent from the field and USF shooting 44 percent.
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 8:04 PM.
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