Wichita State basketball has an out-of-halftime problem. These stats illustrate it
Halftime is supposed to grant a basketball team time to reset and prepare for a strong push to begin the second half.
That has been far from the case for the Wichita State men’s basketball team, which has been plagued by poor starts out of halftime in its 1-7 start in American Athletic Conference play.
Wednesday marked the worst of the Shockers’ post-halftime struggles in a 79-68 loss to Tulsa, a game in which they led by 15 points but came up scoreless on nine straight possessions to begin the second half and allowed the Golden Hurricane to fully erase a double-digit, halftime deficit within seven minutes.
“We started the game with great energy, but then we didn’t come back out with that same energy in the second half,” WSU junior Kenny Pohto said. “We can’t get up by 10, 15 points and feel like we can relax. We have to be more consistent and bring that same energy for the whole game.”
The 15-4 run Tulsa used to rally on Wednesday was just the latest in a string of gut-punching runs opponents have reeled off not long after halftime.
North Texas scored the first eight points following halftime to build an insurmountable lead. Temple utilized a 12-4 run coming out of the locker room to bury WSU in a larger hole. Memphis out-scored WSU by 17 in the opening seven minutes of the second half. South Florida strung together 16 unanswered points to completely flip the game.
“We’ve got to be able to respond better,” WSU junior Xavier Bell said. “We have got to come out with the right mindset and finish the game.”
In eight conference games, WSU has played opponents nearly even on a cumulative basis. But in the second half of games, WSU has been out-scored by 59 points, 328-269.
A study conducted by The Eagle that broke conference games into five-minute segments revealed WSU’s worst five-minute stretch is coming out of halftime. The second worst? The next five minutes of the second half.
WSU has been out-scored six of eight times and by a total of 28 points in the first five minutes of the second half in conference games. Tack on the next segment and WSU has been out-scored by a total of 45 points (an average of 5.6 points) in the first 10 minutes out of halftime.
When asked if the struggles on Wednesday could be pinpointed by a lack of energy coming out of halftime, WSU head coach Paul Mills rejected the idea.
“Our guys are energetic and they’re dialed in,” Mills said. “I wouldn’t blame the players at all.”
While the culprit for WSU’s woes may be unknown, one thing is certain: the Shockers have a defensive problem coming out of halftime.
A study by The Eagle showed eight AAC opponents have netted 1.33 points per possession (buoyed by 50% 3-point shooting) against the Shockers in 64 possessions in the first five minutes of the second half. WSU’s defense is also giving up 1.33 points per possession in the next five minutes of the second half.
Add it up and WSU’s defense is being consistently shredded for the first 10 minutes following halftime with American foes shooting 49% from the field and connecting on 48% of 3-pointers.
The Shockers had actually been scoring around an average efficiency (1.04 points per possession) before Wednesday’s debacle (10 points in 17 possessions) tanked their numbers. But the defense generating so few stops likely made the offensive problems feel more pronounced.
“We have to look at it like every day is a new day,” WSU guard Harlond Beverly said. “We have the coaches and the group of guys where I feel like every day is still a step forward with the amount of work we put in. We’ve got to continue to believe we’re taking steps in the right direction, not in a moral victory type of way, but in a way where we can learn and grow from this and get better.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 5:07 AM.
.jpg)