Wichita State basketball holds off Texas Southern for win, but faces injury questions
The Wichita State men’s basketball team won its nonconference finale 65-56 over Texas Southern at Koch Arena, but the outcome was hardly the primary concern on Thursday.
That changed when star point guard Craig Porter exited the game less than two minutes into the second half after landing on another player’s foot and twisting his left ankle.
Porter didn’t put any weight on his left foot while being helped off the court by trainer Todd Fagan and re-emerged from the training room halfway through the second half with a bag of ice taped to his left ankle. He was seen leaving the game on Thursday with a walking boot on his left foot.
The Shockers improved to 7-5, but any hopes for a mundane victory to send players home for a brief Christmas break were dashed. Now they will play the waiting game to find out if their star point guard will be ready to go in six days when WSU opens American Athletic Conference play in Orlando against UCF.
“It was a little swollen,” WSU head coach Isaac Brown said of Porter’s ankle injury. “He’ll get an X-ray. (Fagan) thinks it’s fine. It’s not broken or anything like that. So we’ll get his treatment and try to get him well. Keep that foot elevated over the holidays and come back and be ready to go.”
Back to what transpired on the court, WSU appeared on its way to a run-of-the-mill victory with a 16-point lead halfway through the second half, but an all-too-typical cold spell made for some tense moments down the stretch for the 6,468 fans who braved the 0 degree weather.
The Shockers mustered just two points during a nearly nine-minute stretch in the second half, as their 16-point lead was whittled down by Texas Southern to 51-48 with 3:27 to play. And if not for horrendous 14-for-34 shooting on layups, Texas Southern (3-9) very well could have taken a lead in the second half.
“It was very frustrating,” Brown said. “They started pressing us and we turned it over and we didn’t attack. They didn’t let us run plays. When a team traps like that, you’ve got to have basketball players go make plays because you can’t run offense. We didn’t hoop good enough in the end.”
Jaron Pierre Jr. rescued WSU in the final minutes, ending the cold spell by racing down the left sideline against Texas Southern’s press and throwing down a dunk over a strong contest.
He followed with a step-back jumper on the following possession to restore WSU’s breathing room, as Texas Southern didn’t threaten again after Pierre’s flurry. The 6-foot-5 sophomore shooting guard finished with a team-high 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting off the bench.
“Coach Brown was in my ear, telling me to attack the rim,” Pierre said. “And I noticed I had (Texas Southern’s Karl Nicholas) on me, so I had to try him. I knew something was going to happen.”
It was far from a crisp performance from either side, as both teams didn’t discriminate on where they missed shots, ranging from layups and mid-range jumpers to three-pointers. Texas Southern finished 32.4% from the field and 23.5% on three-pointers, while a late flurry of baskets pushed WSU’s shooting percentage to 44.6% from the field, although the Shockers’ outside shooting (2 of 14) did not improve.
Senior big man James Rojas (14 points, seven rebounds, three assists) reached double-digit scoring for the second time this season off the bench, while junior wing Jaykwon Walton (10 points, 10 rebounds) notched his third double-double of the season. WSU outscored TSU 42-16 on bench points, as the Tigers were led by 16 points from Davon Barnes.
“Our offense will look really great when we start to make some shots from the three-point line,” Brown said. “You can run anything you want; if you’re not making shots, the other team is just going to pack it in. I thought we executed in the half-court tonight. They’re learning that we’re not shooting it well, so you’ve got to continue to pound it inside and you can only take wide-open jump shots and you can’t take threes early in the shot clock.”
With extreme temperatures — it was 0 degrees outside when play tipped off inside — limiting the crowd to only a few thousand spectators, Koch Arena lacked its trademark energy.
The strange atmosphere only became stranger when Porter played nearly a full minute early in the game without his right shoe. He held the shoe in his hand for an entire defensive possession, then tossed it aside to play an entire offensive possession and even registered an assist on the play to Kenny Pohto with one shoe on.
The Shockers didn’t exactly deliver an inspiring first half but still took a 32-22 lead into halftime by scoring 22 points in the paint. WSU’s cold streak from the outside continued (0 for 7 in the half, which continued a string of 23 consecutive misses from the previous game) and it allowed Texas Southern to score 10 second-chance points from nine offensive rebounds.
The game was notable as the latest achievement in the rapid rise of walk-on Melvion Flanagan, who went from the end of the bench for the first month of the season to the starting lineup for Thursday’s game. Flanagan, who finished with two points and three rebounds in 10 minutes, is believed to be the first walk-on to start for WSU since Wichita native Lance Harris in 2008.
“This is like a dream come true, it means a lot to me,” Flanagan said. “I’m proud of myself right now, but I know I’ve still got to keep working. The season isn’t over. We’ve still got games to play. I’m excited to be in the starting lineup, but I’ve still got work to do.”
WSU also played without 7-foot sophomore center Quincy Ballard, who sat out the contest as a precautionary measure and is expected to play in the Shockers’ AAC opener at UCF on Dec. 28.
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 8:58 PM.
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