Shockers rekindle Roundhouse magic with late rally to top UCF basketball in overtime
Even at just 20% capacity, the Roundhouse still has some magic left for the Wichita State men’s basketball team.
The Shockers erased an eight-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation, then a five-point deficit in overtime, rallying for a 93-88 victory over Central Florida at Koch Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The win keeps WSU (9-4) in second place in the American Athletic Conference, as it improved to 5-2 in conference play and 3-0 at home. WSU has won all six games against UCF since joining the American, as the Knights (4-7, 2-6 AAC) lost for the first time this season when leading down the stretch.
“It shows that we can win with our backs against the wall,” said WSU sophomore Tyson Etienne, who tied his career-high with 29 points. “It’s not the first time we’ve done that, but you’ve got to win at home in conference. For us to win and rally back on our home floor, especially coming off the (20-point loss at Memphis), it was definitely encouraging and a confidence-booster moving forward.”
Etienne topped 20 points for the sixth time this season and was superb once again for the Shockers in crunch time, scoring 11 points during WSU’s 27-14 close to the game after falling behind 74-66 with 3 minutes, 55 seconds remaining.
It was a remarkable swing in momentum, as WSU had gone down eight and lost all momentum — UCF banked in a three and WSU had air-balled one. But after reeling off an 11-1 run, WSU actually led 77-75 with 15 seconds remaining and was one defensive stand away from winning in regulation.
“We talked about that at halftime. ‘How bad do you want it?’” WSU interim coach Isaac Brown said. “Our guys kept battling. In the huddle, the guys were talking, ‘There’s plenty of time. We’re going to come back. Everybody stay calm.’”
Brown threw UCF for a loop by employing a three-quarters court trapping defense that WSU had yet to show this season. On UCF’s final six possessions after taking the eight-point lead, five of them ended in a turnover. The Knights finished the game with 23 turnovers.
“I think it was because they hadn’t seen it,” Etienne said. “We haven’t used that at all this year. We gave them a different look and we were able to speed them up, and they didn’t really know where to go with the ball. We had great guys on the back line and Dex (Dennis) did an amazing job in the middle of it. For us to be able to execute that with such high stakes was a great thing for us.”
But the Shockers failed to close the game out in regulation. Dennis could have given WSU a three-point lead, but split a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left. At the other end, UCF’s Dre Fuller (13 points) drew a foul with 5.4 seconds and made both free throws to tie it.
Brown said WSU failed to execute the play he wanted after Fuller’s made free throws and Etienne was left heaving up a heavily-contested three that missed.
Overtime featured nearly an identical script as the final four minutes — UCF surged ahead, 84-79, only for the Shockers to rally. Once again, WSU found energy turning to sophomore Clarence Jackson.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to fight until the last buzzer,” Jackson said.
After playing an average of 8.4 minutes per game in WSU’s last five games, Jackson played almost all of crunch time (and 19 minutes total) on Saturday and finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and two steals. He had three offensive rebound putbacks down the stretch, including a three-point play in overtime that sparked the Shockers to make their final push.
“You know why I turned to Monzy is sometimes I feel like we don’t have energy on the floor,” Brown said. “He might make some mistakes, but he’s out there clapping his hands and he’s going to the offensive glass and he just brings energy. He don’t always execute, but he always plays hard and that’s what I’m starting to love about that kid. He brought a lot of energy for us.”
And when WSU absolutely need a basket, trailing by one as the final minute of overtime neared, Etienne was there to deliver. He came off a screen from Morris Udeze, received the pass from Alterique Gilbert (12 points, seven assists), elevated at the top of the key and swished the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:05 remaining.
“I’m always looking to screen for him because I know he’s clutch,” said Udeze, who delivered his fourth straight double-digit scoring game with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting. “When he hit that big three, I’m just, ‘Savior.’”
“Big-time players make big-time shots,” Etienne said.
For Etienne, it was his 100th career three-pointer in 44 career games — making him the fastest player in program history to hit 100 triples, topping the likes of Landry Shamet (50 games), Maurice Evans (52) and Ron Baker (56).
“It’s good company to be in the conversation with those guys in a statistic like that,” Etienne said. “I’m thankful to be here, and I’m thankful to play with guys who get me the ball. It’s a testament to working hard and just listening. It’s a blessing, but I don’t play basketball for accolades.”
WSU still needed some work in the final minute to seal the victory. After UCF tied the game on free throws with 55 seconds left, Etienne put WSU back out in front on a free throw and then came up with a steal, which allowed Gilbert to go to the line to make two more free throws for an 89-86 lead. When UCF scored to trim the deficit to one, Dennis (12 points) made a pair of free throws to push the lead back out and Etienne added two more from the line following a UCF miss to close out the game.
“Perseverance,” Udeze said. “There’s no quit in this team. That’s what I love about them. We never quit.”
Before the wild finish to the game, the Shockers looked like a team that was playing in its first game in nine days and just second game in 17 days.
The problem was never shooting — WSU finished the game making 46.2% of its shots — it was on the other end. The Shockers had one of their sloppiest defensive performances of the season for the first 36 minutes, as they struggled to put up much resistance to UCF.
The Knights made 57.4% of their shots from the field, but lost because of their 23 turnovers and the fact that WSU made more free throws (23 of 33) than UCF attempted (12 of 17).
“We just have to play with more composure down the stretch,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “That was a really good basketball game and they showed more composure down the stretch of the ball game. They made more plays. We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. We had 23 turnovers and that’s way too many.”
WSU is set to continue its three-game homestand at Koch Arena at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Tulane. The Shockers will make the return trip to Orlando to face UCF on Feb. 10.
This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 5:32 PM.
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