Missouri makes Wichita State basketball feel the heat in first road loss of the season
Deep in the bowels of Mizzou Arena, Colby Rogers was already doing the math on Wichita State’s 82-72 loss to Missouri on Sunday afternoon.
The number he was fixated on? The 18 turnovers, six of which came before the first timeout of the game.
“You take away five of those and we might be up two points at the end,” Rogers said. “You can’t come out and give them an extra six possessions and give them a lead like that.”
Meanwhile, WSU head coach Paul Mills spoke in front of a crowded media room at the podium about his team’s resiliency and how proud he was of the Shockers clawing back to have two separate shots in the air that would have tied the game in the final three minutes.
No player embodied WSU’s resilience more than Harlond Beverly, a 6-foot-5 junior guard who gave a gusty performance in 38 minutes to grab a career-high 17 rebounds to go along with 12 points, four assists and four steals.
But like Rogers, Beverly was also focused on the turnover count. He contributed seven to the team’s final tally.
“I look at it like I had 40% of our turnovers, and if you cut that in half maybe it’s a one- or two-point game a lot earlier than the four-minute mark,” Beverly said. “You give yourself an expectation and a standard to play at, and when you don’t necessarily live up to that standard in your own eyes it is frustrating.”
It was a somewhat bizarre 40 minutes, at least from WSU’s perspective.
For the majority of Sunday’s game, Missouri’s pressure squeezed the Shocker ball-handlers well past their comfort zone. There were long stretches where the Tigers dictated the game with their defense.
And yet, it took the full 40 minutes to fully vanquish the Shockers.
Beverly led WSU’s final push, scoring three straight baskets attacking the rim to rip off a personal 7-0 run to trim Mizzou’s lead to 68-66 with 3 minutes, 51 seconds remaining.
It seemed improbable after so many early turnovers that WSU would still have a chance late, but the Shockers had wide-open looks from Xavier Bell (10 points) and Kenny Pohto (seven points) beyond the arc that would have tied the game at 71 in the final three minutes.
Instead, both shots missed and Missouri came down and drilled a 3-pointer by Sean East II (game-high 22 points) to provide the final momentum shift. WSU generated another open 3-point look, this time by Dalen Ridgnal, but it also misfired and the Tigers (7-2) secured their fourth straight win.
“We had three chances. They had one and they capitalized on it,” Mills said. “I”m really proud of our group given the hole that we dug ourselves in. We’ll learn to play better. We just didn’t do a good job spacing the floor. We’ll learn from this.”
“We got a couple good looks, so you can’t ask for anything better,” added Rogers, who scored a team-high 17 points. “It’s a make-or-miss game. They were all good shots and we just have to live with that.”
WSU (7-2) was confident in its game plan to handle Mizzou’s pressure, but that was thrown out by the first media timeout when the Tigers had forced six turnovers on WSU’s first seven possessions and built a 10-0 lead.
From there, the Shockers felt like they were chasing the action for the final 35 minutes.
“We were shot out of a cannon, so to speak, and we were able to do that defensively,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “Credit Wichita State. They did not give up. They kept battling, making runs throughout the game. But every time there was a run, I thought our players responded with a big-time play, and I believe it was 3s that allowed us to open the lead.”
Missouri has been one of the more prolific 3-point shooting teams under Gates and did not hold back on Sunday, as more than half of the team’s shots were hoisted beyond the arc. The Tigers connected on 11 triples, while WSU was able to control the boards with a 48-32 rebounding advantage that resulted in a 14-8 advantage in second-chance points.
After WSU clawed back in the game with aggressive drives by its guards, the team attempted four straight 3-pointers down the stretch with all four missing.
It also didn’t help that whenever the Shockers would come within a single possession, their defense would falter. That was the case when WSU’s perimeter defenders lost track of Wichita native Caleb Grill (13 points, 10 rebounds) on a key 3-pointer down the stretch and also on the East triple that extended Mizzou’s lead to six late.
“We started off slow with the turnovers, but we battled the whole game,” WSU center Kenny Pohto said. “We knew it was going to be a battle, so we just kept fighting. It wasn’t enough (Sunday), but now we have to respond to adversity.”
Beverly’s stat line was a rare one in recent history, at least. According to Sports Reference, Beverly’s 17 rebounds were the most by a WSU player in the past 14 seasons, while his seven turnovers tied Ricky Torres, Garrett Stutz and J.T. Durley for the most committed in a single game during the same span.
“We were very prepared. We understood what their game plan was,” Beverly said. “I feel like as players we didn’t necessarily attack our game plan at the beginning as well as we could have. I feel like we were really chasing the whole game after going down early.”
Sunday’s game concluded a four-year series between the two Midwest programs, as Missouri’s win on Sunday was the first time the home team won in the series. The Tigers lead the all-time series against the Shockers, 6-1.
After a six-day layoff, WSU returns to action next weekend when it hosts South Dakota State in the annual Intrust Bank Arena game on Saturday.
This story was originally published December 3, 2023 at 4:21 PM.
.jpg)