Turnovers against ECU add up to eighth straight loss for Wichita State basketball
The little things in games are what the Wichita State men’s basketball team claim are separating it from victories lately.
But when little mistakes are so common, a snowball effect can take place and create a major problem.
The Shockers are learning that the hard way right now, as they lost for the eighth straight time on Wednesday in a 54-52 setback to East Carolina at Koch Arena.
Missed passes, missed box-outs and missed 3-pointers once again converged on Wednesday to extend the program’s longest losing streak in 23 years and clinch an 0-6 start in American Athletic Conference play. As a result, ECU (10-10, 3-4 AAC) left the Roundhouse victorious over WSU (8-11) for the second straight year.
“It’s just more frustrating when it happens in a one or two-possession game,” WSU leading scorer Colby Rogers said. “You look at the turnovers and things like that and you realize how important every possession is. We’re right there. We just have to keep trying to get over the hump, continue to work and stay positive and hold each other accountable and get better.”
WSU has been one of the worst teams in the country in protecting the ball during its losing streak and a return to its home court on Wednesday did nothing to fix that issue.
The Shockers committed turnovers on their first four possessions of the game, finished with 13 first-half turnovers and matched their season-high of 19 turnovers in a game, which translated to a season-worst 29.8% turnover rate. That led to a 22-10 advantage in points off turnovers for ECU.
“I thought (the last two games) we played immature basketball,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said. “There were things we were doing where I kept telling the team, ‘This is amateur hour. This is not good.’ I thought tonight we were way more mature, but it just wasn’t very clean basketball. So we’ve got to get to a point where we play mature basketball cleanly.”
While the box score says WSU won the rebounding battle, 39-38, the percentages reveal ECU actually dominated the glass. The Pirates grabbed nearly 35% of their own misses, while WSU recovered just 25% of its misses, which led to a 17-7 advantage in second-chance points.
A good chunk of those offensive rebounds came after Quincy Ballard, WSU’s 6-foot-11 center, blocked one of his career-high seven shots, but ECU did convert three critical points in the final eight minutes following a missed opportunity for WSU to close out a defensive stop.
“Maybe if we let them get half as many (offensive rebounds), we win by six,” said WSU guard Harlond Beverly, who tied his season high with 18 points. “Those are rough, especially late in the game. Those hurt.”
The game was tied entering the final eight minutes, but the little mistakes began to pile up for WSU and culminated when a lazy, cross-court pass from Rogers was picked off by ECU’s Bobby Pettiford for a steal and dunk to cap an 11-4 run for a 54-47 lead with 2 minutes, 59 seconds remaining.
But the Shockers had a final run left in them.
It began with a trademark Xavier Bell left-handed floater in the lane, but hit a speed bump when WSU gave up an offensive rebound that allowed ECU to run 15 more seconds off the clock and then missed a short shot in transition, which allowed ECU to run more clock.
Ballard stuffed his seventh shot to spark a fast break, as Bell found Ronnie DeGray III on the right wing for a foul. He made both free throws with 52.9 seconds left to trim the deficit to 54-51.
Bell clamped down on ECU leading scorer R.J. Felton to give WSU a third straight defensive stop, but the Shockers’ set play designed to give Rogers a clean look at a game-tying shot was snuffed out by ECU’s switch-everything defense. WSU was left with an off-balanced heave by Dalen Ridgnal, which missed and was rebounded by Ballard, who was fouled with 2.8 seconds left.
After making the first free throw to cut the deficit to 54-52, WSU called a timeout to try to diagram a way to miss the shot, grab the rebound and score a basket to force overtime. Ballard sent a line drive at the rim in an attempt to create a long and chaotic rebound, but instead, the ball caromed straight up in the air and allowed ECU to easily secure it to clinch the victory.
“I have so much respect for Paul Mills and this program and this coaching staff and their players,” ECU coach Mike Schwartz said. “I know the tradition of Wichita State basketball and it’s as good as there is.
“We knew we had to defend tonight and I thought both teams played very, very well on defense. We’re just fortunate to come in here and leave with a win.”
For WSU, it let its second-best defensive performance of the season (ECU finished with a 84.0 offensive rating) go to waste. A big reason why is the combination of 19 turnovers committed and 17 offensive rebounds allowed turned into 24 more shot attempts for ECU, which finished shooting 33.8% from the field and still won on the road.
Also not helping matters was WSU’s abysmal 3-point shooting, which finished with a 3-for-18 output on Wednesday. In the last two games, WSU is shooting a combined 5-for-37 (13.5%) on 3-pointers.
Up next for the Shockers is a 2 p.m. Sunday game against SMU, which is 14-4 overall and 4-1 in AAC play. The Mustangs enter rated as the second-best team in the conference by KenPom adjusted efficiency.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for you. Nobody is crying for you, other than my wife,” Mills said. “We’ve just got to find a way to get better.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 8:29 PM.
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