Dexter Dennis dunks his way to a season-best performance in Wichita State’s rout
A confident and aggressive Dexter Dennis returned for the Wichita State men’s basketball team at Koch Arena Wednesday evening.
The 6-foot-5 junior busted out of his offensive slump this season on Wednesday, the most important takeaway from the Shockers’ 81-43 trouncing of Division II Newman. Dennis, who entered averaging 5.7 points on 26.5% shooting, scored a season-high 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting with a pair of three-pointers.
Much like he’s done throughout his career at WSU, Dennis provided the highlights of the night with a pair of vicious dunks. Dennis also added three rebounds, a block and two steals, as WSU outscored Newman by 27 points in his 20 minutes on the floor.
He showed his aggressive mindset on the opening possession of the game, as he took his first touch and ripped through a defender, took one bounce and elevated for a tomahawk jam for WSU’s first basket of the game.
But the dunk that WSU coaches will enjoy even more came midway through the second half when the Shockers were on a fast break and Dennis demanded the ball in transition, something he has worked on for the last two years but has not quite yet mastered. But on this occasion, Dennis looked as smooth as possible catching, taking one dribble and propelling himself to the rim for a slam dunk that erupted WSU’s bench and the little less than 1,600 fans who were allowed inside Koch Arena.
WSU won its fourth straight game to improve to 5-2 heading into a difficult road stretch that begins Saturday at Mississippi (5-2) and continues next Wednesday with a return to American Athletic Conference action at No. 5 Houston (7-1). The game counted as an exhibition for Newman.
In the blowout victory, the Shockers were able to achieve just about everything they wanted to get out of the game.
They hardly showed any rust returning from an 8-day layoff from Christmas break, as the Shockers scored the first 16 points of the game and the fans remaining on their feet until the first opponent basket was scored more than five minutes into the game. It was the best start to a game since WSU opened up 18-0 against Rider in a game on Nov. 25, 1991.
Not only was WSU able to establish some confidence in Dennis, who had struggled shooting from the floor, but just about its entire roster minus redshirt freshman Josaphat Bilau, a 6-foot-10 center who missed Wednesday’s game due to knee swelling. All but one of WSU’s 12 scholarship players who played scored at least one basket.
WSU finished the game shooting 49.3% from the field with a season-high 21 assists on 33 made baskets, including eight three-pointers at a 36% clip. It was by far the best shooting performance by the Shockers this season, as they had yet to crack 41% shooting.
Although it did come against a low-level MIAA opponent, it was still encouraging for WSU to win the rebounding battle, 47-39, and hold Newman to 26.9% shooting from the floor.
The Shockers also continued to see strong play from their bench, as Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler was the only other WSU player in double-figures with 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting in 13 minutes off the bench. Other bench standouts included Trevin Wade (8 points, 3 steals), Clarence Jackson (7 points, 8 rebounds), Chaunce Jenkins (6 points) and Trey Wade (4 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists).
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 7:48 PM.
.jpg)