February success continues for Wichita State basketball with 10-point win over Tulsa
February has been an extraordinary month the past decade for the Wichita State men’s basketball program.
It has been when the team has cleaned up its mistakes from early in the season, exerted its will over opponents and made its annual push for the NCAA Tournament.
While another dominant February isn’t likely to bring an at-large bid to March Madness this time around, it very well could instill confidence for a run in Fort Worth at the AAC Tournament. Wichita State took a step in the right direction on Tuesday night with a 58-48 win over Tulsa at Koch Arena.
Beating the last-place team in the American Athletic Conference at home is a low bar to clear, but after blowing its fifth double-digit lead of the season just three days prior, it felt important for WSU (11-8, 2-5 AAC) to prove it can protect a lead. The Shockers also improved their winning percentage to 84.2% in February since 2012 — the third-best mark in Division I during that span.
“At this point, a win feels pretty good,” WSU junior Dexter Dennis said. “Obviously we’ve got more to do, but it’s a start.”
A dominant nine-minute close to the game, where WSU outscored Tulsa 21-4 to pull away from a 37-37 tie with 10:59 remaining, made an otherwise forgettable game at least palatable for the Shockers, who won despite shooting 32.2% from the field, 28.6% on three-pointers and 63.2% from the foul line.
Anything less than a victory would have been simply unacceptable on a night where WSU wore commemorative MTXE jerseys, hearkening back to the glory days of Mental Toughness, Extra Effort under coach Gene Smithson. Especially with the stakes being a loss would drop them to the bottom of the AAC standings.
“These guys still believe we can beat anybody in the conference if we come out and play well,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “They feel like the games we lost, we beat ourselves. We’ve got to continue to get better, continue to believe in each other, and continue to fight to try to get victories.
“This was a game we had to have.”
Wichita State didn’t do much to ease concerns about its scoring prowess, chugging out a meager 0.92 points per possession, but it didn’t need to with a return to form on the defensive end made to look even better with horrid shooting and unforced turnovers by a Tulsa squad that bumbled and stumbled its way to 32% shooting of its own to go along with 17 turnovers.
Even with its record, Tulsa took No. 6 Houston down to the final shot just two weeks ago. While it was clear that same Golden Hurricanes squad didn’t travel to Wichita on Tuesday, it was still an impressive feat for the Shockers to limit Tulsa to an astonishing 0.38 points per possession (11 points in 29 possessions) for all but the final 90 seconds of the second half.
Tulsa leading scorer Jeriah Horne finished with a season-low two points on 1 of 11 shooting, while Sam Griffin scored a game-high 17 points but needed 19 shots to do it and also had four turnovers.
“At the beginning of the second half, we had our chance to take control of the momentum and we didn’t,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said in his postgame radio interview. “They got it started with second-chance points and then all of a sudden we started turning the ball over and we had some tough possessions on offense.”
What had been a rock fight to that point certainly felt available for the taking with the score tied at 37 and less than 11 minutes to play.
That’s when Ricky Council IV and freshman center Kenny Pohto combined to score 14 points during WSU’s decisive 21-4 stretch to put the game away and establish a 58-41 lead, helping the Shockers stop chucking away from deep and start scoring inside.
Council found success in the middle of the floor and attacking the basket, going to work against Tulsa’s match-up zone. He scored nine of his team-high 11 points during the rally and assisted on a Dexter Dennis three-pointer, while Pohto (eight points) grabbed two offensive rebounds and finished put-backs to further demoralize Tulsa.
“When Ricky is not turning the basketball over and defending, he’s a guy who can really make some big-time plays on offense,” Brown said. “I thought he did a better job of defending and not turning the basketball over (no turnovers). He can play big minutes for us. He’s one of the most talented players in the league.”
“I was pretty much out the whole first half (due to two fouls),” Council said. “They put me in the middle in the second half and I did what coach wanted me to do. Made plays and scored a little bit.”
For a game lacking much rhythm on the offensive end, WSU’s defense delighted the crowd (8,132 tickets sold) the most.
The Shockers earned their first standing ovation of the night early in the decisive run when Pohto slid over to take a charge on Tulsa’s Darien Jackson, a call that led to Haith earning a technical foul, which only brought more noise.
Shortly after, Qua Grant’s quick hands tipped an outlet pass that led to a loose ball between Tulsa’s Rey Idowu and WSU’s Monzy Jackson. Idowu touched it first, but Jackson was relentless in his pursuit and emerged with the ball, then flipped it to Grant for a lay-in — a play that surely had Xavier McDaniel smiling in his home in South Carolina.
“I talked to the guys about what MTXE means and those guys wanted to win that basketball game for all of the players who played here in the past,” Brown said.
It was a peculiar game for WSU leading scorer Tyson Etienne, who erupted for three three-pointers in the game’s first three minutes, then only attempted one shot for the next 27 minutes of game action. He finished with 10 points, all scored before the first media timeout of the game, on 3 of 11 shooting.
Starting center Morris Udeze delivered nine points, a team-high eight rebounds, four blocks — one shy of his career-high — and a steal, while point guard Craig Porter added two points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists and orchestrated an offense that only committed 10 turnovers. Nine of the 10 WSU players who logged minutes scored and the one who didn’t, Jackson, still made an impact with five rebounds and three steals.
WSU is aiming for its first road AAC win on Thursday against a SMU team in second place in the conference standings and winners of 13 of its past 14 games. The two teams will play twice in three days with the return trip slated for Wichita on Saturday.
“I do think this gives us confidence to know we can win these games late and we can compete with anybody,” Brown said. “As long as we don’t turn the ball over and take good shots.”
Wichita State 58, Tulsa 48 basketball game box score
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 10:09 PM.
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