Undermanned WSU rallies for opening win behind Tyson Etienne’s career-high 26 points
Sophomore guard Tyson Etienne scored a career-high 26 points to lead undermanned Wichita State to an 85-80 victory over Oral Roberts in its season opener Wednesday night at Koch Arena.
The Shockers played with just eight men, as five scholarship players and all three walk-ons were held out because of COVID-19 restrictions, and fell behind by nine points in the second half, but managed to deliver a victory in interim coach Isaac Brown’s head coaching debut.
Brown became the first Black head coach in WSU men’s basketball history and the first to start the season for a Division I men’s basketball program in Kansas. It was the first time since 2007 that WSU played a game without Gregg Marshall, who resigned on Nov. 17.
Etienne scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half, including 15 points during WSU’s crucial 24-8 run to turn a nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead. The sophomore made 8 of 18 shots, including four three-pointers, and 6 of 7 from the foul line to lead the Shockers.
It was a run that would have normally brought Koch Arena to deafening levels. Instead, it was silent outside of the cheers of Etienne’s teammates on the bench with the first game with no fans was played due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Just to be back out there on the court, it’s a beautiful thing,” Etienne said. “It was a blessing to even be out here playing at Koch Arena, despite not having our support system behind us. For us to come out and get the win with a new coach, a new team, eight players, it was a great thing.”
Considering WSU was on the verge of going down double-digits in the second half as an 11-point favorite at home, rallying to avoid an embarrassment like the 13-point loss to Louisiana Tech at Koch Arena to start the 2018-19 season was an achievement.
A victory will be what’s remembered from Wednesday, but Brown and the coaching staff will have to review how to prepare WSU to play a Missouri team that crushed this same Oral Roberts team by 27 points by Sunday. The Shockers shot 40.9% from the field, gave up 18 offensive rebounds in part of being outrebounded 44-42, and allowed Oral Roberts’ two stars — Kevin Obanor and Max Abmas — to combine for 55 points and 10 three-pointers.
“I’m excited about the win, but I know we’ve got to play a lot better because it’s about to get a lot tougher,” Brown said. “So my mind is on cleaning up our mistakes. We’ve got to rebounder better. We’ve got to take better shots. We’ve got to execute better. We’ve got to guard better.”
After Oral Roberts played the Shockers tough in their 2019 visit to Koch Arena, it came back even stronger this season and were tied up with WSU at 78-all entering the final three minutes of the game.
After handing out zero assists in the first 37 minutes of the game, Alterique Gilbert, who scored 18 points in his WSU debut, made the game’s two biggest passes down the stretch to lead the Shockers to victory.
The first came when Gilbert penetrated and collapsed ORU’s defense and he found Clarence Jackson wide open in the right corner. Jackson hadn’t taken a three-pointer the entire game, but calmly swished the three to break a 78-all tie with 2:54 remaining.
“Every day in practice coach Lou (Gudino) tells me to shoot the ball, shoot the ball,” said Jackson, who finished with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench. “I know when it’s my time, step up.
“AG is a wizard with the ball, so I know at any time he can wrap it around and give it to me. We work on that in practice with drills, so it was basically a practice shot to me.”
After ORU scored to cut the deficit to 81-80, Gilbert once again delivered in crunch time for the Shockers on another drive to the hoop and a nifty flip to Morris Udeze (10 points, six rebounds, three blocks) for a dunk and 83-80 lead with 32 seconds left.
WSU went to halftime with just four assists on 14 made baskets, but finished with 12 for the game.
“I think that comes with a new team,” Gilbert said. “A little jitters too as well. We just had to settle down a little bit. I think everybody was a little anxious. We’ve been waiting to play for a while now and once we settled down we started to move the ball a little bit. A little more fluidity on offense.”
Oral Roberts squandered two possessions late to try to tie the game, including a crucial block from Trevin Wade (six points, three assists) that went out on Oral Roberts to give WSU the ball back. Gilbert iced the game with two more free throws with eight seconds left.
WSU finished with 85 points, despite only receiving two of them from star Dexter Dennis. The 6-foot-5 junior wing never looked comfortable on the offensive end and finished 1 of 6 from the field, although he did grab five rebounds and supply his usual superb defense.
“It felt good getting the win,” Brown said. “I’m so glad those guys stayed together and battled. We hit some adversity in that game. That team was shooting the ball really well. We got down nine, but our leadership showed up and those guys stayed together and we defended late and got a couple of stops and were able to win the game.”
Things looked bleak when Obanor gave Oral Roberts a surge to start the second half with seven straight points during the run that ultimately pushed its lead to 57-49 halfway through the second half.
With the Shockers in desperate need of a spark, Etienne delivered.
The rally began with Etienne drilling a three coming off a screen, then Trey Wade followed with a three-point play to cut ORU’s lead to 61-58. When Abmas doubled the lead with a three, Etienne came right back down and matched it with a triple of his own. WSU then matched two straight defensive stands with two straight Etienne jumpers to erase the deficit and reclaim the lead, 65-64, with 8:28 remaining.
“Tyson got it going and once he got it going, we rode it,” Brown said. “He’s a tremendous shooter. He stepped up and made some big shots and he drove the ball well and got to the foul line. He played a big-time game and we need that from him.”
WSU then extended its lead behind Etienne and Trevin Wade, who was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three of his free throws and then the backcourt duo each delivered a three-pointer to push WSU’s lead to 74-69. Two more free throws from Etienne staked WSU to a 76-69 lead with 5:35 remaining — a 27-12 extended run over a five-minute span.
It was quite the reversal from the first half when Etienne was 2 for 4 shooting with five points and saddled to the bench with two fouls.
“I wasn’t feeling the greatest in the first half. My body was a little weird,” Etienne said. “I was like, ‘We worked too hard. All eight of us worked too hard every single day.’ We’re limited. Just because I’m not feeling the best, I can’t quit on my team. None of us could quit on each other. I felt like I had to do my job and lead my guys and step it up and put the ball through the rim.”
WSU was without junior guard Craig Porter, redshirt freshman forward Josaphat Bilau, and all three freshmen — guard Chauncey Jenkins, wing Ricky Council and forward Jaden Seymour. All five players are expected to miss Sunday’s game against Missouri for COVID-19 reasons as well.
It was the latest WSU season opener in nearly five decades and the first game for the Shockers in 269 days — a nearly nine-month absence. In that time, WSU’s players have gone through the investigation into abuse allegations against Marshall, Marshall ultimately resigning, and the start of the season being delayed due to positive COVID-19 tests.
“Nobody wants to be going through that and not know what’s going to happen,” Etienne said. “We just kept telling ourselves to control what we can control. We can’t control what decision is made. We can’t control who gets sick. We can control coming to work every day, giving our best effort, locking in, listening to what coach has to say and having each other’s backs and being great teammates.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 8:02 PM.
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