All heart: Shockers rally from seven down, pick up dramatic home win over Temple
Thursday night began with Erik Stevenson telling his teammates that it would take all heart to win against Temple. He was right.
Wichita State erased a seven-point deficit with four minutes remaining, rallying for a 72-69 victory over Temple at Koch Arena. The Shockers improved to 21-7 overall and remained tied for fourth place in the American Athletic Conference with a 9-6 record.
It was almost a concerning effort from the Shockers, a team desperately fighting for its NCAA Tournament life. While a win would not be significant, a loss would have been the first Quadrant 3 blemish of the season for WSU.
“It was a now-or-never type of moment,” WSU sophomore Jamarius Burton said. “We knew that we either had to make plays or we’re going to take another loss on our home floor and we didn’t want that, especially for our senior Jaime (Echenique).”
WSU was led by a career-high 21 points from junior Trey Wade, who hadn’t scored more than 11 points since November, on 8-of 9-shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Burton added 15 points and six assists for the Shockers, while Echenique finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and three assists. Temple (14-14, 6-9 AAC) was led by 20 points from Quinton Rose.
The Shockers shot 50% from the field, including a 9-for-21 effort beyond the arc, but 15 turnovers turned into 23 points for Temple.
After losing in the final minute in its last three close games, WSU finally made the big plays down the stretch to deliver a victory.
“Much better than losing,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “It’s a big difference those three points, one way or the other. The law of averages say we’re going to make some plays at some point down the stretch and we did (Thursday).”
The dramatic close to the game started with Wade draining a three-pointer that sparked the Shockers. After forcing a shot-clock violation, WSU scored again when Tyson Etienne drove baseline and used his body as a shield while finishing at the rim to draw to within 65-63 with 3 minutes, 18 seconds remaining. Burton followed with an off-the-dribble jumper that cut Temple’s lead to 66-65 with 2:17 remaining.
WSU rebounded a Temple miss, then took a 67-66 lead with 1:47 remaining when Burton drew a foul and made a pair of free throws. Temple had a good look to take the lead following a WSU miss, but Dexter Dennis sprinted the floor and strongly contested a layup by Rose and forced the miss.
Burton gave WSU a 69-66 lead with 23 seconds remaining with a high-level finish at the rim. WSU won the free-throw shooting contest in the final seconds, and Temple missed a potential game-tying three-pointer with five seconds left.
“Us ending the game how we did just shows us that we can make the plays down the stretch as well,” Burton said. “We’ve been in several ball games where we didn’t make the plays we needed to to win in a tough game like this and come out with a better outcome. I’m glad we got this win and we can be confident that we can pull off wins like that.”
WSU used a strong start to the second half, highlighted by a 9-2 run capped by five straight points from Burton that opened up a 50-43 lead with 14:47 remaining.
But thanks to three mistakes on the offensive end, that seven-point lead evaporated in one minute. Temple turned back-to-back WSU turnovers into three-point plays at the other end, then created a fastbreak off a Stevenson miss that ended in a layup that tied the game 53-53 with 11:40 remaining.
More stagnant play saw the Shockers dig themselves in a 65-58 hole with 4:25 remaining that set up the dramatic finish.
“It was character time,” Marshall said. “We had to display some character at the end.”
WSU delivered the first run of the game, an 8-1 spurt capped by a Noah Fernandes three-pointer that opened up a 16-9 lead after eight minutes. But that’s when the Shockers went through a cold stretch, as Temple slowly ran up its lead to 26-20 with 5:08 remaining.
Wade was the player who sparked the Shockers.
Earning his first start since Feb. 9 seemed to energize Wade, who finished the first half with 18 points — one off his career-high as a Shocker. When WSU trailed 26-20, it was Wade who steadied the team with two straight dunks. He added a three-pointer to score seven points during an 11-5 run that tied the score at 31-31.
“I’m so happy the ball was going in (Thursday),” Wade said. “I work so hard on my shot. Doing stationary threes, I work so hard on them. I see them go in in practice and when they go in in the games, that’s a good feeling.”
Wade added another triple and a layup to score 12 points in the final 4:18 of the first half, as Temple took a 37-36 lead into halftime.
Freshman point guard Grant Sherfield did not play in the game due to coaches’ decision. The Wichita native had started the last four games for WSU and entered averaging 7.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 25.0 minutes per game.
“Grant and I, we talked on Tuesday and I want him to do some things a little different and he’s going to try to do that,” Marshall said. “We’re going to work with him. He’s a great kid. I love him in my program, but there’s got to be a couple things he’s got to adjust, tweak. It’s not going to be hard if he wants to do it and I think he does. So we’ll move on.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 8:59 PM.
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