Ice-cold outside shooting dooms Wichita State basketball in loss to Oklahoma State
The defense was piling up the stops the Wichita State men’s basketball team needed to win, but the offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.
The Shockers played the level of defense they needed to erase a double-digit deficit to defeat Oklahoma State, but they never found the offense in what became a 59-49 loss to the Cowboys at Intrust Bank Arena on Saturday night.
WSU held Oklahoma State to a single field goal and 11 misses in the final 10 minutes of the game, but a miserable 1-for-21 shooting performance beyond the arc for 4.8% accuracy ultimately spelled the Shockers’ doom.
WSU still managed to whittle a 14-point deficit down to 53-48 with 1:37 remaining, but never came closer down the stretch. Three-point shots by Craig Porter and Jaron Pierre Jr. completely missed their mark down the stretch, which resembled the shooting night as a whole for the Shockers.
The Shockers entered having made at least 12 three-pointers in three of its last four games, but reverted back to their poor shooting ways. All six of WSU’s misses in the final six minutes came on three-pointers.
OSU also entered as a poor outside shooting team, but made nine three-pointers and shot 39% beyond the arc. WSU won the battle in the paint, out-scoring the Cowboys 30-16, but its outside shooting woes were too much to overcome.
Porter scored a team-high 14 points with seven rebounds, a block and three steals, while no other player reached double-digit scoring. The Shockers finished with a season-low efficiency of 0.79 points per possession.
WSU has lost back-to-back games at Intrust Bank Arena after losing 65-59 to Kansas State last December.
Unlike that game, where WSU played in front for nearly the entire game, the Shockers started in a 10-0 hole against Oklahoma State and fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first half.
All things considered — WSU shot 1 for 12 on threes and 35.7% from the field — the Shockers were fortunate to only be trailing 32-26 heading into halftime.
Walk-on Melvion Flanagan once again provided the spark for the Shockers, jumping a passing lane for a steal, then finishing an acrobatic lay-up while being fouled. The three-point play helped trim the halftime deficit to six points, as WSU out-scored OSU by nine points in the first half with Flanagan on the floor.
Whenever WSU tried to prolong a rally to take the lead, the Shockers would stub their toe and give up a run to Oklahoma State instead.
When WSU closed to within four right out of halftime, the Cowboys ripped off an 8-2 spurt fueled in part by a pair of WSU turnovers to open up an 11-point lead. And when the Shockers started to turn the momentum, as a Gus Okafor putback trimmed the deficit to 43-36, Oklahoma State reeled off a 7-0 run to double its lead to 14 points in a matter of 90 seconds.
This story was originally published December 17, 2022 at 10:03 PM.
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