‘Good teams don’t play like that’: Wichita State basketball focused on closing better

The mood on the Wichita State men’s basketball team following its 75-67 win over Tulane at Koch Arena on Wednesday was a little muted for a team that is now tied for first place in the American Athletic Conference in the loss column.

The Shockers improved to 6-2 in conference play, but WSU interim coach Isaac Brown wasn’t going to let his team feel too good after allowing a 21-point lead to dwindle to as few as six points in the final minute.

Protecting leads has been the theme for WSU (10-4) entering Sunday’s 2 p.m. game against Temple (4-6, 3-6 AAC) at Koch Arena with the game being broadcast on ESPNU.

“Good teams don’t play like that,” Brown continued. “They play for 40 minutes. They don’t play for 32 minutes. I’m going to show them some of the good things we did, but I’m going to show them all of our mistakes. I don’t want that to come back and bite us.”

There were plenty of positives for WSU in building the 21-point lead: the ball was whipping around, the team’s defense was on point, and WSU was rebounding better than it had all season.

For whatever reason, that high level of play vanished in the game’s final eight minutes.

“We’ve got to play until the end,” WSU leading scorer Tyson Etienne said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a skill thing, it’s a mental thing. Knowing the game is not over. They don’t want to get killed, so they’re not going to just lay over. Just being aware. I don’t think it’s anything crazy. We just need to be aware of it and we need to make the adjustments. I’m not worried about it.”

The Tulane game wasn’t the first time that WSU has failed to close out a win as strong as it could have.

The Shockers allowed Cincinnati to trim a 16-point deficit in the final five minutes to a final score of 82-76. In both games against Tulsa, WSU built a 17-point lead, only to let Tulsa rally to within at least five points both times. The Shockers hung on for a 69-65 win in Tulsa, but managed to close strong in a 72-53 win in Wichita.

WSU did well to rally from 13 down at South Florida, but bungled a 69-64 lead with 17 seconds left and nearly lost in regulation before escaping with an 82-77 overtime win.

“We need to get better at closing out as a group and really applying that pressure when we put teams in those positions,” WSU senior point guard Alterique Gilbert said. “We’re doing a great job at getting the lead, but we’re losing them. We can always be better.”

The one time the Shockers have allowed a lead to slip away into a loss was on the road to a top-10 team in Houston. WSU led 35-25 early in the second half, but gave up a 16-0 run and never recovered in a 70-63 loss.

Not only would closing better reduce stressful late-game situations, but it would also help improve WSU’s efficiency metrics. Winning so many close games is good, but struggling to win by bigger margins may be a reason why the Shockers are just No. 70 in the NET — far away from the range to make a strong case for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

That’s why Brown is looking for the Shockers to close out the game better if they find themselves in control Sunday against Temple.

“I tell them all the time that it’s a bad habit that can come back to bite you,” Brown said. “You’ve got to learn how to close out games. We’ve got to stop at the end of the game thinking about me, me, me and playing hero ball. Let’s play as a team, let’s defend as a team, let’s play smart. We did that for about 32 minutes.”

Temple at Wichita State

Records: TU 4-6, 3-6 AAC; WSU 10-4, 6-2 AAC

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Koch Arena (20% capacity)

TV: ESPNU

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM

Series: Temple leads 6-4 (3-2 in Wichita)

Projected starting lineups

Coach: Aaron McKie, second season, 18-23

Coach: Isaac Brown, first season, 10-4

Taylor Eldridge

The Wichita Eagle

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Wichita State athletics beat reporter. Bringing you closer to the Shockers you love and inside the sports you love to watch.