‘A now-or-never type moment’: Jamarius Burton answers the call for WSU in crunch time
Much has been made of Wichita State’s lack of a go-to player in crunch time after the Shockers have faltered down the stretch in their last three games decided in the final minute.
Jamarius Burton played like he wanted to change that narrative on Thursday night, as the sophomore guard made almost every big play down the stretch to help the Shockers claim a come-from-behind 72-69 victory over Temple at Koch Arena.
With the Shockers trailing by seven points with a little more than four minutes left, Burton scored eight points and assisted on a three-pointer during the crucial 13-2 run WSU used to stave off what would have been a blemish on its NCAA Tournament resume.
“He loves the ball in his hands in crunch time,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said.
Was Thursday the coming out party for the 6-foot-4, 200-pound bulldozer as WSU’s go-to player down the stretch?
“I hope so,” Marshall said. “He’s just going to have to develop and learn. He’s still very young. He’s only played in about 60 games in his career. He’s better than he was last year, so let’s hope he continues to evolve and become more confident.”
With WSU trailing 65-58 with 4:25 remaining, Burton said WSU’s players sensed a potential turning point — not only in the game, but in the season. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had WSU pegged as one of his final four teams in the NCAA Tournament field before the game, meaning a loss at home to Temple, which would be WSU’s first Quadrant 3 loss of the season, would likely send the Shockers to the wrong side of the bubble.
“None of us have been in the tournament, so we’re fighting to get in it,” Burton said. “We all know these games are real meaningful, so we’re trying to take advantage of the opportunity. We control our own destiny. We’re trying to win all of these games, so we don’t have to rely on other teams to lose or win. We’re just trying to take care of our business.”
Burton helped fuel the game-winning charge with an assist to Trey Wade, who drilled his career-best fourth three-pointer en route to a season-high 21 points. After WSU’s zone defense forced a shot clock violation by Temple, freshman Tyson Etienne followed with a strong finish — the kind WSU hasn’t made in recent close games — at the rim to trim the deficit to 65-63 with 3:18 remaining.
In the final three minutes, Burton demonstrated why he very well could be WSU’s best bet to close games down the stretch.
One reason why is because Burton is 6-4 and typically has a height advantage over smaller guards. He also has a high release on his shot and shoots well off the dribble, which naturally makes him a good option for when WSU’s offense breaks down and it needs someone to create a shot.
That’s exactly the situation Burton faced when he was passed the ball with five seconds left on the shot clock. The sophomore responded calmly, taking two dribbles to his right to get to his spot and elevating over a smaller defender to drill a 15-foot jumper to pull WSU to within 66-65 with 2:18 remaining.
After WSU lost in the final minute at Cincinnati last weekend due to empty offensive possessions, Marshall said he felt like WSU didn’t have a player who could consistently score or draw a foul in crunch-time situations.
That had been true in WSU’s last three close games, but Burton proved he has the capability on Thursday. After connecting on the clutch jumper, Burton pushed the pace on the next time down and turned the corner on a high screen and bowled over Temple’s Nate Pierre-Louis much like Cincinnati’s Jarron Cumberland did last weekend against the Shockers. And just like Cumberland, Burton received the foul call and made a pair of free throws to put WSU up 67-66 with 1:47 remaining.
“It was a now-or-never type of moment,” 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).”
It wasn’t just on the offensive end where Burton came up big for WSU. He also made a crucial defensive play to help the Shockers preserve their one-point lead in the final 90 seconds.
Temple wanted Monty Scott to curl off of a screen on the wing and funnel him the ball at the free throw line with space to attack. But Burton busted through the screen and stretched his hand out to deflect the pass to Scott and fell to the floor to retrieve the loose ball to win the possession back for WSU.
With WSU clinging to a one-point lead, Marshall once again put the ball in Burton’s hands at the end of a possession.
The play call was for Dexter Dennis to set a brush screen for Dennis. That meant Dennis would essentially slip the screen and peel off to the wing for a spot-up three. If Temple’s defense came off to prevent Burton from driving, then he would have the kick-out attempt for a shooter who is making nearly 40% of his three-pointers in conference play.
With that figure in mind, Temple did not switch the screen and Dennis’ screen bumped Burton’s defender off track just enough to give Burton the sliver of space he needed to turn the corner. Instead of settling for a pull-up jumper, Burton continued his attack and extended the ball in his right arm past the out-stretched hands of Temple center Damion Moore to gently kiss the ball off the backboard into the basket for a 69-66 lead with 23.4 seconds remaining.
“We ran that play the play before and I knew if we went to it again, they were going to overplay,” Burton said. “Both of them jumped out on Dexter on the pop, so I just went downhill and I saw the big come up and I just kept my eyes locked in on the rim so I could finish and I did.”
February had been a month of heartbreak for the Shockers, as they lost in the final minute at Tulsa (54-51 on Feb. 1) and then twice to Cincinnati (80-79 in Wichita on Feb. 6, then 67-64 in Cincinnati on Feb. 23).
To finally come up clutch to pull out a win, especially considering the potential NCAA Tournament ramifications, felt good for the Shockers.
“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).”
WSU can improve its March Madness hopes with a win in either of its upcoming road games, at SMU on Sunday and at Memphis on Thursday. Building confidence from Thursday’s win can be crucial, especially for a player like Burton, who finished with 15 points on 5 of 11 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 performance from the foul line.
“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.”
.jpg)