Wichita State women’s basketball season ends in overtime loss at AAC Tournament
When overtime rolled around at Dickies Arena in the opening game of the American Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament, there was a belief among the Wichita State players another thriller would go their way.
Less than a week earlier, in the regular-season finale, the Shockers were the beneficiaries of some lucky bounces and they were able to celebrate a dramatic victory to send off their seniors at Koch Arena.
There would be no such lucky bounces this time, however, as Wichita State had its season abruptly ended in an 88-86 overtime loss to Tulsa on Monday afternoon in the opening round of the AAC Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas.
“We kept fighting, we kept competing, we just needed to get a few more defensive stops,” WSU coach Keitha Adams said. “This is what’s the hardest thing about losing close games because you can sit here and say, ‘Man, if we would have scored a couple more times, taken better care of the ball, gotten a couple more stops…’ There’s so many little things that you could do differently to change the outcome and that’s what’s so hard when you lose a close game like this.”
It was that kind of season for the Shockers, which saw the promise of a 10-2 start fade with close loss after close loss. In total, WSU lost six conference games by seven points or loss — many in excruciating fashion — in the regular season.
Monday’s result can be added to the list, which concluded a disappointing 14-16 season with a veteran group in Adams’ fifth year at the helm of the program. It was also the fourth straight year the Shockers posted a losing record (5-11) in conference play.
According to a source within the WSU athletic department, Adams still maintains the confidence of the administration to turn the program around. Adams, whose contract runs through the 2023-24 season, is 62-78 in five seasons at WSU.
“You know, it’s tough. You’re trying to build a program and you’re going to go through things to get there and (adversity) happens,” Adams said. “We had to figure out how to play ball and get through a pandemic.
“But there’s not anything that I would change about this group, not one thing. There’s only one thing that I would have liked more for them and for us is for us to win these close games and to win more games. That’s the only thing that I would like to change for us and that’s been hard. But I know that when we get our program where we want, we’re going to look back on this group and they’re going to have a legacy and they’re playing a part in us building this program and us being so competitive and playing hard.”
A pair of foreigners have helped Adams lay the foundation for the program the last four years in Seraphine Bastin (Belgium) and Carla Bremaud (France), the team’s only four-year players. Along the way, Adams was able to add instant-impact players such as forward Asia Strong and guard Mariah McCully, who are also set to graduate with Bastin and Bremaud this year.
Those four players once again led the way against Tulsa: Strong finished with a team-high 20 points and six rebounds, McCully added 17 points and four assists, Bastin scored a career-high 16 points with five rebounds and six assists, while Bremaud added 10 points.
“This is basically my last game playing as a senior, so it’s bittersweet,” Strong said. “We fought, but we didn’t get the result we wanted. During last season and this year, we would be very close in games. We’ve got to kick the door down. We just got to keep kicking and keep kicking and just keep getting better and better every day.”
WSU nearly pulled off the improbable, erasing a five-point deficit in the final 90 seconds of regulation with a shot from McCully that could have won the game at the buzzer.
But the Shockers’ undoing in so many close games this season has been their tendency to turn the ball over, which proved fatal in their final game. WSU finished shooting 56.9% from the floor and out-rebounded Tulsa, 39-26, but lost by two points because it turned the ball over 27 times, including five costly ones in overtime.
“Our goal was to have 13 or less turnovers,” Adams said. “We were still right there in the game, even though we didn’t take very good care of the ball. I feel like that was really the difference. If we would have taken better care of it, had more shots, I feel like we would have had a much greater chance of winning the game.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:04 PM.
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