Wichita State looks like NCAA Tournament team in dismantling of AAC champion Tulsa
If Wichita State wanted to make an impression on the selection committee in its regular-season finale Sunday against Tulsa, then the Shockers certainly succeeded in looking every bit like an NCAA Tournament team.
WSU dismantled the American Athletic Conference co-champions on Sunday in a 79-57 victory that also secured the fourth seed and first-round bye next week at the conference tournament and dropped Tulsa into a three-way tie with Cincinnati and Houston for the regular season championship.
The Shockers (23-8, 11-7 AAC) will play the winner between No. 5 Connecticut and No. 12 Tulane in Friday’s quarterfinals at 2 p.m. at Dickies Arena with the game broadcast on ESPN2.
Not only was WSU playing for its postseason life, but also for its lone senior, Jaime Echenique, who desperately wants to play in his first March Madness. The 6-foot-11 center from Colombia was stellar again on Sunday, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks. He was showered with applause when he checked out for the final time and also afterward during his senior day festivities.
“It was big to get our 23rd win and to enhance our postseason opportunities and to honor that kid,” Marshall said. “What a special young man. He’s sacrificed a lot. He hasn’t seen his family in five years. For him, the guys rallied. We’ve played here and there, but today it didn’t matter, today on his senior day, we honored him with that effort.”
WSU was also motivated after watching so many bubble teams lose on Saturday. A win over Tulsa, which qualifies as a Quadrant 3 game at home, doesn’t move the needle much for the Shockers, but a loss would have been potentially fatal. Plus, the Shockers would have had to watch Tulsa celebrate an outright championship on their home floor if they lost.
Erik Stevenson scored a team-high 18 points, the most he’s had in nearly one month, and added nine rebounds and two steals. Jamarius Burton scored several timely baskets and finished with 14 points and five assists, while WSU’s offense clicked for an efficient 47.4% shooting performance from the field, including 11 three-pointers.
“We had a better sense of urgency,” WSU sophomore Dexter Dennis said. “We really needed this game. We just lost at Memphis, so this game was really important to us for a lot of reasons. So everybody acme out with a sense of urgency for us as a team and for our goals and for Jaime on senior night.”
When WSU’s offense has been near its peak this season, it’s usually been in the games where Stevenson has been on target. After looking like a shell of himself in WSU’s last two games, when he scored a combined two points, the sophomore finally got himself going early in the second half with a pair of fast-break layups that he finished through fouls.
The back-to-back three-point plays ignited Stevenson and restored the confidence of the player who led WSU in scoring for the first three months of the season. He played with that same swagger when he confidently pulled the trigger on a three for a swish to give WSU a 46-29 lead early in the second half and bring the Koch Arena crowd to a roar.
“He looked like the Erik from earlier in the year,” Marshall said. “He had a little bounce to him. He was rebounding and getting in there in the fray. It didn’t look like he had any ailments, physically or mentally.”
Memories of the 15-1 start and No. 16 ranking were flooding back when Morris Udeze scored on back-to-back baskets inside and WSU pushed its lead to 59-37 with 11 minutes remaining in the game. But as the following two months have proven, no lead or deficit, regardless of the margin, is ever safe with these Shockers.
Nervous tension swarmed Koch Arena when Tulsa made its final stand with a 12-0 spurt that closed the gap to 10 points, 59-49, with still more than eight minutes remaining. It even forced the rare timeout from Marshall to regroup his team.
After the timeout, when WSU needed offense, it was Burton who delivered the momentum back to the Shockers. He drove and finished a tear-drop floater in the lane with a foul and made the free throw, then followed that up with a pull-up three-pointer over a hard contest that swished.
It sparked an 11-0 run, which was capped by a pair of free throws by Stevenson and a Trey Wade three-pointer, as WSU pushed back against Tulsa’s challenge. In less than three minutes, WSU had ballooned its 10-point lead into a 21-point lead and Tulsa never threatened again.
“It was our last opportunity to put on a show for our fans,” Burton said. “We wanted to go out on a victory, a high note, and we wanted to send Jaime off the right way with a win.”
WSU pummeled Tulsa from the start, as Burton swished his first three-pointer and Dennis followed with back-to-back triples to give the Shockers a 9-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game.
The Shockers’ defense stifled Tulsa into an ice-cold shooting start to the game, as they methodically built an 18-6 lead after 10 minutes. But WSU would go through its own shooting woes, as Tulsa rallied to within 29-26 before the Shockers pushed their halftime advantage to 34-26.
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 5:08 PM.
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