From down 16 to overtime, Wichita State basketball’s comeback falls short to Arizona
It’s a different kind of heartache when a team defies momentum, odds and reason with an improbable comeback, only to come up short in the end.
The Wichita State men’s basketball team erased a 16-point deficit in the second half and forced overtime on another signature shot by Tyson Etienne, but ultimately lost, 82-78, to the Arizona Wildcats late Friday night at T-Mobile Arena.
It will be Arizona (4-0) in the primetime game on Sunday night, playing No. 4 Michigan for the Roman Main Event championship, while the Shockers (3-1) will take on UNLV (3-1) in the third-place game at 11 p.m. Central time Sunday on ESPN2.
After the first setback of the 2021-22 season, Etienne delivered almost an identical message as he did when WSU started last season 1-2.
“The Shockers, we’re not going to fold,” said Etienne, who went down swinging, scoring 24 of his game-high 27 points after halftime on 9-for-27 shooting. “We’re going to be one of the greatest teams in college basketball, I firmly believe that. I know the heart that my guys got in that locker room. I know my coaching staff. We’re going to learn from this and we’re going to be great.
“We never folded and at the end of the day, you can’t teach that. We have that in abundance in our locker room. I’m proud of my team.”
It was a bizarre 45 minutes of basketball, as Arizona seemed poised for a blow-out win, up 16, midway through the second half, only for WSU to somehow walk away feeling like it should have won the game in regulation.
That’s because the Shockers missed 12 of 21 free throws in regulation, including a stunning 1-for-3 trip to the foul line for Etienne, a career 78% foul shooter who missed two go-ahead chances with 39 seconds left. Poor foul shooting haunted WSU in its last two losses of last season, both one-point losses.
“We missed 12 free throws and lost the game by four points,” Etienne said. “If we make eight of those 12, then we win by four. I missed four of eight. I never shoot 50% from the free throw line. I can have 27 points, but I’m disappointed because I know my team needed those four free throws.”
Already at a size disadvantage against the tallest team in the country, WSU was frustrated with how the game was officiated during scrums for rebounds. The Shockers had three frontcourt players foul out during the game, including both of their centers, as WSU was whistled for 10 more fouls that allowed Arizona to shoot 42 free throws, 18 more than WSU.
The normally stoic WSU coach Isaac Brown made his feelings clear in his post-game comments.
“It wasn’t just the fact that they were shooting free throws,” Brown said. “I get it if a team is beating you off the dribble and you’re fouling, but we got called for 15 check-out fouls. I’ve been coaching for 25 years and I’ve never seen that. We weren’t allowed to box out. We put them in the bonus early and we had a lot of guys on the bench. We couldn’t check out. We weren’t allowed to check out.”
On one possession early in the second half, WSU was whistled for four straight fouls trying to box out. Given a fifth chance, Arizona scored on a dunk to cap an 8-0 spurt to bury the Shockers in a double-digit deficit out of halftime.
“It was extremely frustrating because we felt a lot of the whistle wasn’t going our way, but we stayed poised,” said WSU junior Qua Grant, who had 13 points and six rebounds. “It’s emotional out there and we knew it was going to be a hard game and a game of runs. We had to focus on making that run to get back into it.”
After falling behind by 16 points with no momentum, WSU somehow managed to dominate Arizona, outscoring the Wildcats 27-10, to take a 65-64 lead following four straight points from Grant with 1:41 remaining in regulation.
Arizona surged ahead 69-66 with 21.5 seconds left on a three-point play by Azuolas Tubelis, only for Etienne to hit an off-balanced triple over a strong contest to tie the game and force overtime after Arizona couldn’t convert near the rim at the buzzer.
“I spoke to everybody before the game and I said, ‘Think about why you play this game. When you need to give extra effort or go extra hard, think about the person or the reason you play this game for,’” Etienne said. “I think it was a collection of that hunger, that fight that we have. Obviously we didn’t come out victorious, but a couple of bounces the other way, a couple more made free throws, a couple more rebounds and I think that game goes to Wichita State.”
The Shockers never recovered after falling behind by six points in the opening minute of overtime, although they did manage to cut a nine-point deficit down to 80-78 with 3.2 seconds left on back-to-back threes from Etienne and Grant. But Arizona made two free throws to clinch the victory.
WSU shot a season-low 33.8% from the field and tied a 24-year program record by launching 39 three-pointers, both a result of Arizona’s superior length that led to 10 blocked shots. The Shockers fought back thanks to grabbing 20 offensive rebounds and forcing Arizona into a season-high 22 turnovers.
Craig Porter added 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Ricky Council IV scored nine points and Dexter Dennis added six points, six rebounds and three assists. Benedict Mathurin led Arizona with a team-high 25 points on 8-for-15 shooting.
“We knew it was going to be a hard test,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Wichita State is a program with a reputation for toughness and grittiness and they battled. I was really proud of our guys for battling with them. It was one of those crazy see-saw games.
“High-level basketball games aren’t always a thing of beauty. It can be a rock fight and that’s exactly what it was tonight.”
Arizona entered as the team that was explosive and elegant, capable of playing the opposition off the court and doing it with style and grace. WSU was the team that specialized in winning rock fights.
For a moment on Friday, the Shockers believed they were going to win another one.
“Those kids got heart, man,” Brown said. “They kept battling. I’ve got good leadership on the bench. We were down (16) and nobody pointed fingers. They just kept battling. We knew we had to defend, rebound, play with toughness and take good shots to get back in the game and the older guys really helped get us back in the game. I’m proud of them.”
Arizona Wildcats 82, Wichita State Shockers 78 box score
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 11:35 PM.
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