Wichita State basketball escapes with win at UCF, off to its best 10-game AAC start
Don’t ask for an explanation, but the Wichita State men’s basketball team is off to its best start through 10 games since joining the American Athletic Conference four years ago.
Here are the facts: WSU won 61-60 over Central Florida at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando on Wednesday to improve to 8-2 in conference play, register a Quadrant 2 road victory, and remain tied with Houston for first place in the loss column.
But the Shockers (12-4) did all of that in the most exhausting way possible, which has become their calling card this season. They can be simultaneously resilient and vulnerable, exhilarating and excruciating, diligent and careless.
WSU continues to be a conundrum, but it has conquered the most valuable skill of them all — finding ways to win. The Shockers improved to 7-1 this season in games decided by five points or less. So how is it all possible?
“I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know,” WSU junior Dexter Dennis said. “We’ve had a lot of games like this. Sometimes my parents tell me we make them almost pull their hair out. But we still find ways to win.”
WSU appeared to seal the victory when Alterique Gilbert (team-high 17 points) drilled a three-pointer and made a pair of free throws in the final minute to give the Shockers a four-point lead with 12.7 seconds remaining. But looks can be deceiving with this WSU team.
Ideally, WSU wanted to put up enough resistance without fouling to force UCF to drain those precious seconds away. It accomplished neither, as UCF’s Darius Perry (career-high 27 points) dribbled the length of the floor in less than five seconds, scored an easy layup and was touch fouled in the process. The three-point play cut WSU’s lead to 61-60 with 7.9 seconds left.
Still, the Shockers were an inbounds pass away and another pair of free throws from insuring they could do no worse than overtime. That is before Trey Wade tried to squeeze a pass in the corner to Tyson Etienne, who had the ball deflected off his leg for a turnover.
Although WSU controlled the game for more than 32 minutes, it couldn’t exhale until the final buzzer after anxiously watching Perry throw up a potential game-winner from 15 feet away. The shot was long and WSU won its fourth straight game, picked up its first road win since Jan. 2 and improved to 7-0 all-time against UCF (5-10, 3-9 AAC).
“I loved the shot that Darius took,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “He took it with conviction and we’ll live with that every time.”
Was WSU fortunate to escape with a win? Or was WSU gritty to find a way to win? Maybe it was a little of both. All that WSU interim coach Isaac Brown cares about is that the Shockers are leaving Orlando with a win.
“I’m excited, man,” Brown said. “Any time you can come on the road in the AAC and get a win, it’s exciting. The kids continued to battled. They continued to go on the road and make big plays. They stayed together. No one pointed fingers. It was a total team effort.”
WSU certainly needed a team effort because its star, Tyson Etienne, was effectively bottled up by UCF’s aggressive trapping defense every time he tried to use a ball screen. The AAC’s leading scorer finished with just five points on 1-for-8 shooting.
The Shockers won despite being out-shot (37.3% to UCF’s 40%) and out-rebounded (35-31). Dexter Dennis (16 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks) posted WSU’s first double-double of the season, while center Morris Udeze (12 points) scored in double-figures for the sixth time in the last seven games.
“We play a lot of close games, but we’ll take the win,” Udeze said. “It’s been crazy, but as long as we get that ‘W,’ that’s all that matters.”
WSU led by as many as seven points in the second half, but entered the final three minutes trailing 53-52. Trey Wade dunked an Etienne miss with 2:22 left to give WSU the lead back, then Udeze poked away a ball for a steal and Dennis made two free throws for a 56-53 with 1:24 left.
When UCF cut the deficit to one, WSU took a timeout with 50.5 seconds left to set up a crucial possession. Late in the shot clock, Etienne was blitzed on a ball screen, but managed to retain possession and start the ball movement that ultimately led to Gilbert finding a wide-open three in the corner that he swished for a 59-55 lead with 28.7 seconds remaining.
It was a surprising performance from Gilbert, who did not practice on Monday and missed Wednesday’s pregame shoot-around because of a migraine headache. Brown admitted he wasn’t sure how much Gilbert would be available and brought him off the bench for just the second time this season in caution. In the end, Gilbert delivered the last five points for WSU in the win.
“He sucked it up, got hydrated, came off the bench with a great attitude and gave us great minutes,” Brown said. “I’m so proud that Alterique handled it the right way. He stepped up and made some big baskets for us tonight.”
The Shockers also continue to win despite their inability to secure defensive rebounds. After a season-worst performance against Temple, which grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and 41.5% of its own misses, UCF topped that by retrieving 45.2% of its own misses for 14 offensive rebounds. That led to the Knights owning an 18-11 advantage in second-chance points.
WSU now ranks No. 332 in the country in defensive rebounding percentage after finishing in the top 40 nationally for 17 of the past 18 seasons.
“We’ve got to get better on the glass,” said Brown in what has become a constant refrain. “That’s one thing we’ve got to get better at. We just got to keep chopping wood and keep getting better at it.”
And yet this WSU team that is nowhere to be seen in the top-25 rankings or NCAA Tournament bracketology is off to an 8-2 start in AAC play, something that not even the 2017-18 Shockers squad that climbed as high as No. 4 in the national polls and secured a No. 4 seed in March Madness could do.
“The way these guys have gelled together is unbelievable right now,” Brown said. “For them to come on the road and win basketball games is a sign of a good team, a team that has good leadership and a team that is all about wins. These guys continue to stick together and that’s the key to winning on the road.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 8:18 PM.
.jpg)