Tyson Etienne’s career game shoots Shockers to fifth straight win at Mississippi
Tyson Etienne showed his range and the Shockers showed their resilience, as the Wichita State men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to five games with an 83-79 win over Mississippi in Oxford on Saturday evening.
The sophomore sharpshooter from Englewood, N.J. practically willed WSU to victory from a seven-point, second-half deficit with a career-high 29 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, including five three-pointers, and 8-of-9 shooting on free throws. Etienne played all but 52 seconds of the game and scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half.
WSU won its third straight road game as an underdog — Ole Miss was favored by 8 points on Saturday — and improved to 6-2, while handing Ole Miss (5-3) its first home loss of the season. WSU interim coach Isaac Brown is the first rookie coach in program history to win his first three road games since Gary Thompson won at Drake, Bradley and Cincinnati with Dave Stallworth and Nate Bowman in the 1964-65 season that eventually ended in the Final Four.
Ole Miss entered with the eighth-best scoring defense (56.9) and the 13th-best field goal percentage defense (36.9%) in the country, not that you could tell against the Shockers. WSU shredded the Rebels for 83 points in 67 possessions on 52% shooting — both season-highs for Ole Miss’ defense. The Shockers drilled nine threes at a 45% clip and made 22 of 26 free throws (84.6%), impressive accuracy for a team that hadn’t exactly excelled in shooting this season.
Etienne helped WSU erase a 69-62 deficit in the final 7:39 of the game when the Shockers were given just a 7% win probability. His deep triple from the wing gave the Shockers their first lead, 73-71 with 4:47 remaining, in more than 23 minutes of game action and it also capped an 11-2 run that featured six points from Etienne and another basket — a Morris Udeze dunk in transition — from his steal.
Ole Miss senior Devontae Shuler (20 points, including a career-best six three-pointers) restored the home team’s lead, 74-73, with 3:56 remaining on a mid-range jumper.
WSU found a response from Trey Wade, who knocked in a top-of-the-key three with 2:59 remaining to give WSU a lead, 76-74, it would not relinquish again. The senior is just 4 of 23 from beyond the arc (17.4%) this season, but two of those three-pointers have come for the Shockers in a crucial spot down the stretch of their last two road games. Wade finished with nine points, a team-high 10 rebounds and a team-high five assists.
After the disaster of allowing a five-point lead slip away in the final 10 seconds at South Florida, WSU avoided any such drama this game. Not that there weren’t any nervous moments closing out the game for the Shockers.
Ole Miss trimmed the deficit to 80-79 with 21 seconds left, but Alterique Gilbert (14 points, 4 assists) made two free throws to extend to the lead to 82-79. Shuler launched a potential game-tying three that missed and Ole Miss grabbed the offensive rebound — the Rebels scored 14 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds in the second half — but Luis Rodriguez was fouled and miss two straight free throws with 10 seconds left. Dexter Dennis (10 points) sealed the victory with a free throw at the other end.
WSU committed a season-high 16 turnovers, which Ole Miss turned into a 31-14 advantage in points off turnovers, while the Rebels grabbed six more offensive rebounds and doubled the Shockers in second-chance points (20-10).
But neither of those things mattered when Etienne was shooting the way he did in the second half of Saturday’s game. The sophomore scored in just about every way imaginable. He drilled a corner three with his defender draped over him. He hit a three-pointer from Ole Miss’ center-court logo, some five feet behind the three-point line. He drove past his defender, elevated, absorbed contact and finished over a center at the rim for a three-point play.
Ole Miss simply did not have an answer for Etienne, who made 5 of 7 field goals and 6 of 7 free throws in the second half.
It spoiled what had been a superb shooting performance from an Ole Miss team that entered ranked No. 311 in the country in three-point shooting at 26.7%. WSU was off to a strong start and forced Ole Miss to burn two timeouts in the opening eight minutes, but the Rebels established their lead by drilling four of five three-pointers.
Ole Miss finished the first half 7 of 13 on three-pointers, a season-high for threes in a half, but its outside shooting came back down to Earth in the second half. The Rebels misfired on 11 of 13 three-pointers and finished the game shooting 34.6% on triples.
WSU will have plenty of momentum heading back into American Athletic Conference play, as the first-place Shockers (2-0 AAC) will head to No. 5 Houston (7-1, 2-1 AAC) on Wednesday for their third straight road game to open conference play.
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 7:12 PM.
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