Wichita State basketball escapes with second straight upset road win for 2-0 AAC start
It took five minutes longer than probably necessary, but the Wichita State men’s basketball team is 2-0 and in sole possession of first place in the American Athletic Conference following its second straight road win over a team picked to finish ahead of the Shockers this preseason.
The Shockers rallied from a 13-point deficit, blew a 5-point lead with less than 10 seconds left in regulation, then escaped Tampa with an 82-77 victory over South Florida Tuesday evening at the Yuengling Center. WSU (4-2) snapped the four-game winning streak of USF (5-3) and handed the Bulls, picked to finish fifth by AAC coaches — two spots ahead of WSU — their first conference loss.
Interim coach Isaac Brown became the first WSU rookie head coach to win their first two true road games since Harry Miller did it in December 1971, nearly 50 years ago, by winning at Nebraska and Colorado. The Shockers also improved to 13-5 in their last 18 road games.
“It’s not really surprising because our guys are always battling in practice,” Brown said. “Our first unit battles against our second unit and it’s really competitive every day in practice. We’ve practiced situations like this before. We call it, ‘Late Game.’ You’re up three or down three and you’ve got to win the game. That’s something we practice every day. I’m so proud of the way these guys are battling.”
WSU sophomore Tyson Etienne scored a game-high 25 points, which included making 10 of 12 free throws, six rebounds and four assists to lead a balanced effort behind him featuring Alterique Gilbert (10 points, five assists), Clarence Jackson (10 points, 7 rebounds), Trey Wade (9 points, 8 rebounds), Ricky Council (8 points) and Craig Porter (7 points).
The Shockers won despite being outscored behind the three-point line (24 to 18) and from the free-throw line (27 to 22), on top of being dominated on the glass (USF outrebounded WSU 54-39). WSU outscored USF in bench points (32 to 15), points in the paint (34 to 22) and points off turnovers (19 to 9).
The Shockers also limited USF to 33% shooting from the field and forced 18 turnovers.
“We just dug in,” Etienne said. “Sometimes you’re going to make shots, some games you’re going to miss shots. Sometimes you’re going to get the whistle, sometimes you’re not. But what you can control is how hard you play and we just stuck together and played with our hearts. It comes from within.”
WSU led 68-63 with the clock running under 10 seconds, but USF would actually have a chance to win the game in regulation.
That’s because the Shockers fouled the three-point shooter twice. The first foul, committed by Etienne, allowed David Collins (team-high 17 points) to convert a four-point play to trim WSU’s lead to a point, 69-68, with 4.9 seconds left. After Wade split a pair of free throws, Collins could have won the game for USF when he baited Gilbert into fouling him behind the line with 0.4 seconds left. After some strategic timeouts by Brown, Collins was only able to make two of three free throws to send the game to overtime.
It was a stunning collapse for WSU, which had a 98% win probability in the closing seconds. It was reminiscent of when WSU allowed a nine-point lead with 65 seconds left slip away at Connecticut in January. WSU won that game as well, prevailing 89-86 in double-overtime on the road.
“Everything happens for a reason. We’re a young team and sometimes we’re going to make young mistakes,” Etienne said. “But coach Lou (Gudino) told us to stay positive and that we can’t do anything about the call. We had five more minutes of extra basketball, which is what we wanted. We want to keep playing basketball, so we kept our heads straight and stuck together and we got the win.”
Despite the demoralizing end to regulation, WSU regrouped with a players-only huddle and responded by registering four straight defensive stands to open the extra period. Porter scored five straight points to give WSU a lead that it would this time protect by making its free throws and avoiding fouls on three-point shooters.
“I’ve always been prepared for these moments,” Porter said. “I feel like this will boost my confidence a lot. Helping my team, no matter what it has to be, dishing it off, scoring, rebounding, playing defense, I’ll do whatever it takes to get on the floor and help my team win.”
It was an impressive rally by WSU following a miserable first half from the offense, as the Shockers shot 27.6% from the field, missed all but one of their 10 three-point attempts and committed seven turnovers. WSU trailed by as many as 13, and outside of a SportsCenter Top 10-worthy dunk from Etienne, it was a forgettable half.
The Shockers were able to get back in the game in part because of Brown’s decision to switch to a matchup zone defense that forced USF to shoot jumpers. According to Synergy, USF shot just 2 of 12 in the second half against WSU’s zone defense.
USF entered with a distinct size advantage inside, but the Bulls settled for jumpers, which isn’t their strong suit, time and time again against WSU’s zone defense. Per Synergy, USF shot just 12 of 36 on jumpers, with 57% of their total attempts being jumpers — well above their season average. That allowed WSU to pack the paint and better contest shots at the rim, which led to USF shooting an abysmal 34.6% on close shots, per Synergy.
“Coming into the game, we wanted to get in our zone but we couldn’t score so it was hard to get in it when you can’t score,” Brown said. “We finally started scoring in the second half and were able to set it up and we wanted to force those guys to make jump shots. We wanted to make sure they didn’t get in the paint, so I felt like the zone bothered them a lot.”
With USF busy chucking away from the outside, WSU was able to make a run at the lead once its offense finally picked up. The Shockers reeled off an extended 16-6 run that saw them take their first lead of the game, 49-48, with 7:37 remaining in regulation on a jumper by Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler.
Etienne drilled a deep three to break a 52-all tie with 4:50 remaining. Gilbert followed with back-to-back acrobatic finishes in the lane to push WSU’s lead to six, 59-53, with 2:48 left. The Shockers thought they had it clinched when Wade drilled a corner three with 58 seconds left to make it 66-60, but that only set up the dramatic late-game finish.
WSU will have an eight-day break before returning Wednesday for its conference home opener against East Carolina at Koch Arena.
“I remain confident in my guys since day one,” Etienne said. “Everything that went on with us during the offseason off the court, we couldn’t control that. But every day we were battling and we’re still battling. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve only won two games, but to get two huge road victories against two good teams is definitely good for us going into this stretch we’re about to have. It’s motivating and encouraging, but we know we’re just getting started.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 8:39 PM.
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