Wichita State basketball crushes Tulsa in win to advance to AAC tournament quarterfinals
The Wichita State men’s basketball team avoided the same fate as last year’s team in its opening-round game in the American Athletic Conference tournament on Thursday.
There would be no stunning loss to their rival to end the season early this year, as the Shockers dispatched last-place Tulsa in an 81-63 win at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, the same venue and setting where they lost in the program’s first one-and-done postseason in 12 years last March.
“We talked about that before the game that this happened last year where we beat (Tulsa) twice in the season and then lost to them here,” said WSU sophomore Kenny Pohto, the only current player to have played in that game last season. “We knew we couldn’t relax or be complacent. We knew they were going to be hungry, so we just had to be hungrier.”
Wichita State improved to 17-14, defeated Tulsa three times in a season for only the second time in school history and first time since 1987-88, and advanced to the AAC tournament quarterfinals to face No. 3 seed Tulane (19-10) at 8 p.m. Friday in a game broadcast on ESPNU.
Almost just as importantly, WSU pushed its lead to as many as 26 points in the second half, which allowed head coach Isaac Brown to preserve the legs of WSU’s key players — no one played more than 29 minutes.
“I think it’s going to benefit us a lot,” Brown said. “The fact that our veteran guys didn’t have to play 35 minutes like they normally do, to get those guys some rest.”
The Shockers have no shortage of confidence after scoring 51 second-half points on 66% shooting with 16 assists on 19 made baskets. A total of 11 different WSU players scored, as the team pumped out 1.46 points per possession to turn a 5-point halftime lead into the program’s largest victory in its brief AAC tournament history.
WSU improved to 13-4 this season when scoring at least 70 points, a streak it hopes to continue against a Tulane team it just defeated by scoring 70-plus points against in New Orleans less than two weeks ago.
“Our offense has really been flowing the last 10 games of the year,” Brown said. “We’re trying to play inside out. (The posts) can really score with their back to the basket and when they’re scoring it inside, it makes it easier for our guards. They can make stationary threes and that’s what we wanted to go to in the first half.”
Senior point guard Craig Porter registered his sixth career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 11 assists, one shy of tying the tournament record. Porter’s 11 assists without a turnover also tied the program record for most assists without a turnover in the last quarter-century.
“I just trust these guys more than anything,” said Porter, who recorded nine of his 11 assists in the second half. “Every time I tell them, if I pass it to you, I think you should shoot it. So they were prepared and they were taking the good shots that we’ve been looking for and they were just knocking them down.”
WSU doubled up Tulsa in points in the paint, 48-24, as it scored 81 points with a high scorer of 13, a three-way tie with Jaron Pierre, Kenny Pohto and James Rojas. After missing the past two games due to COVID-19 protocol, Jaykwon Walton returned to log 11 points in 22 minutes off the bench.
It didn’t take much to vanquish a Tulsa team missing three starters and looking to end a forgettable 5-25 season in coach Eric Konkol’s first year. Tim Dalger scored a game-high 21 points and Tulsa made 10 3-pointers, but couldn’t keep up with WSU’s torrid scoring pace with its 41% shooting.
“Wichita State has been playing good basketball,” Tulsa coach Eric Konkol said. “The games that we’ve played with them before, we knew that we would play a very physical team, a team that would be trying to get the ball into the paint and score a number of 2-point baskets.
“Thought we (executed game plan) for a good part of the first half fairly successfully and then the second half just got away from us there.”
WSU scored the first 10 points of the game, but played the rest of the first half with an indifferent attitude. The lack of intensity was why the Shockers, 16½-point favorites in Vegas, only led 30-25 at halftime.
Rojas provided the early tone-setter coming out of halftime, as the sixth-year senior rose for a rim-rattling dunk while being fouled for a 3-point play to highlight a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the second half.
“I never really did that at Bama. I think I had like one career dunk,” said Rojas, a graduate transfer from Alabama. “It feels good to be able to jump up again and feel explosive enough to get up and dunk like that.”
WSU’s lead steadily grew from there, as it held a double-digit lead for the final 16 minutes. Walton hit a triple, then Pierre followed with one of his own beyond the arc. Walton hit another 3-pointer and Gus Okafor completed a 3-point play and WSU had stretched its lead to 69-44 with 7:29 remaining.
“Coach got on us, telling us to stick with the game plan,” Porter said. “The intensity just wasn’t there. I feel like in the second half, we just wanted it more, we picked up our play, we got it inside and just got everybody easy looks.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 7:56 PM.
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