Bench players deliver ‘breakthrough’ game to lead Shocker basketball to road win at SMU
When Craig Porter was saddled with his fourth foul on Sunday with more than 15 minutes remaining and Wichita State trailing SMU by seven, the data collected from this season suggested the Shockers’ chances were finished.
Before Sunday’s game, WSU was 27 points better than its opposition per 100 possessions with its senior point guard on the floor, per cbbanalytics.com. When Porter wasn’t on the floor, WSU’s offense and defense cratered.
But when Porter headed to the bench for an extended stay on Sunday, something peculiar happened: The Shockers made a run. And not just any run, a prolonged run featuring some of WSU’s best play of the season during a stretch where it pummeled SMU 30-12 for nearly 12 straight Porter-less minutes.
When the outlook appeared bleak, WSU was rescued by the elevated play of sparsely-used players such as sophomore point guard Shammah Scott (4 points, 3 assists), redshirt-freshman forward Isaac Abidde (4 points, 2 rebounds) and walk-on center Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler (5 points, 3 rebounds).
While WSU’s late implosion against SMU’s full-court pressure required heroics in the final minute to escape with a 71-69 victory, the play of WSU’s unlikely bench unit without its star player was the driving force behind the team’s second road win in American Athletic Conference season.
“I’m so proud of guys like Shammah Scott, Isaac Abidde and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler,” WSU head coach Isaac Brown said. “All of those guys gave us some big-time minutes.”
Brown found himself in a similar position dealing with Porter foul trouble on the road like he did earlier this season at Richmond, where Porter picked up his fourth foul with nearly 13 minutes remaining.
In that game, WSU folded without Porter, as Richmond reeled off a 16-2 run to take the lead before Brown subbed Porter in with more than 10 minutes left to stabilize the team and rally for victory.
On Sunday, Scott kept the WSU offense humming in Porter’s absence. It’s been an up-and-down season for the sophomore playing in his first Div. I season, as he went from starting the first four conference games to playing a total of three minutes the next two games, but Sunday’s performance at SMU felt significant.
Scott played 16 minutes without committing a turnover, doled out three assists (two on savvy throw-aheads in transition) and scored four points to help WSU rip off a 15-0 run.
“We’ve always had confidence in (Scott) and he’s always had confidence to come in and step up,” Porter said. “We always tell our guys to be ready, you never know when your number will be called. I loved to see all of those guys step up for us at the same time.”
With starting center Kenny Pohto also dealing with foul trouble, Poor Bear-Chandler’s minutes in the second half were crucial. After not playing at all the last two games, the senior came up with a pair of important rebounds, a steal that led to a fast-break layup and made 3 of 4 free throws to help during the rally.
After redshirting last season, Abidde hardly played in the first two months of the season. But he has started to become a regular in the rotation and Brown trusted him to play in crunch time against SMU. Abidde missed three free throws but scored an impressive basket inside while being fouled for a three-point play and grabbed the game’s most important rebound in the final 10 seconds.
“We’ve got a really good team,” Abidde added. “We just had to stay together as a team and keep going, no matter who was out or in for us.”
As Porter’s clutch shot-making in the final two minutes showed, WSU certainly still needs him. But Sunday’s game felt like a step in the right direction for the Shockers, which proved they can survive — and thrive — without their star player.
“It felt like a breakthrough for us,” WSU guard Jaron Pierre Jr. said. “We knew without Craig we had to stay together and just keep fighting. When one of us goes down, we’ve all got to pick up the slack, not just one of us.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 10:34 AM.
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