How road woes continued for Wichita State basketball in AAC loss to Charlotte
Winning on the road is already hard, and it’s made even more difficult with the traits of a men’s basketball team like Wichita State.
The required attention to detail continues to evade the Shockers, who lost their eighth straight road game on Sunday afternoon in a 72-61 setback to Charlotte at Halton Arena.
The first meeting between the two programs pitted teams at opposite ends of the American Athletic Conference standings. WSU (10-16, 2-11) has won just three times since December, while Charlotte (17-8, 11-2 AAC) continued its Cinderella run under coach Aaron Fearne after being selected 13th in the preseason coaches poll.
Here are three takeaways from the latest Wichita State basketball game:
1. Free throws tell the story in Wichita State loss
A major emphasis in WSU’s scouting report on Charlotte was defending without fouling.
The 49ers rely on the free-throw line for a good chunk of their offense and they are 5-6 this season when they attempt fewer than 18 free throws. WSU coaches hammered it home to avoid fouling.
WSU proceeded to foul a shooter on three of the first four possessions. Eighteen had been the magic number told to the players and Charlotte attempted seven free throws in the first three minutes.
“We just have to be more locked in at the beginning of the game,” WSU starting point guard Bijan Cortes said. “Coach had a good game plan for us and told us how to win the game, and if we would have stuck to that game plan, we would have done better for sure.”
WSU head coach Paul Mills was particularly upset by his team fouling a 3-point shooter, which turned a shot with an expected value of 1.13 points into three free throws with more than double the expected value of points.
“You’ve got to defend without fouling,” Mills said. “Fouling a 3-point shooter is moronic. When you start thinking through (the math), you just can’t give up those kinds of points per possession. It’s not good.”
WSU managed to trim a 16-point deficit to six with more than seven minutes left in the game, but its comeback attempt was thwarted by a dreadful 7-of-16 performance from the foul line. Contrasted by Charlotte’s 17-of-23 finish, the 10-point difference on free throws proved vital in deciding a winner.
The season-worst 43.8% accuracy on free throws comes three games after the team made 15 of 15 shots at the foul line for the third-best team free-throw performance in program history. WSU was shooting 78% as a team in its previous eight games before Sunday.
“We’ve got the Babe Ruth syndrome at the free-throw line,” Mills said. “Either we hit a home run or we strike out.
“It is what it is. Unfortunately, this particular team struggles in that area.”
2. Foul trouble derails game for WSU leading scorer
It probably felt to Colby Rogers like he couldn’t catch a break in the first three minutes.
A disastrous start began when Rogers appeared to bail out WSU on the first possessions of the game, drilling a deep 3-pointer as the shot clock expired. But after a review, officials deemed the ball was still in the shooter’s hand when the clock expired and the basket was waved off.
Then on two straight defensive possessions, Rogers was whistled for fouling a shooter. Not only did Charlotte benefit from the five free throws, but even more by the two early fouls that planted WSU’s leading scorer on the bench for the final 17 minutes of the first half.
Without Rogers for almost the entire first half, WSU’s offense floundered and the team trailed by as many as 15 points.
“We need Colby out there offensively in order to generate something,” Mills said. “Him not being there in the first half kind of plagued us.”
Rogers averages 36.8 minutes per game in conference play and accustomed to establishing a flow early in a game. Robbed of that, he was clearly thrown out of rhythm and never recovered in the second half.
The extended layoff had the biggest impact on his outside shooting, as Rogers finished 0-for-3 beyond the arc and even had an uncharacteristic air ball. He failed to connect on a 3-pointer for the first time this season, as his streak of 25 straight games, tied for the fourth-longest in school history, ended.
The output of Rogers, who led WSU with his 15.2 scoring average, was limited to nine points on 3-of-9 shooting in a season-low 17 minutes.
3. Shockers unable to dig out of early hole
Fouling wasn’t the only thing that plagued WSU at the start of the game. Turnovers can also be included on that list.
In a bizarre split, WSU turned the ball over six times on its first 13 possessions — and then just four more times on its final 51 trips.
Making matters worse was that a chunk of those early turnovers led directly to points for Charlotte. The 49ers held an 11-0 advantage in points off turnovers in the first half, the exact margin they held in a 36-25 halftime lead.
“I don’t think it was a lack of energy or anything,” WSU junior Xavier Bell said. “Just little mistakes hurt us and we got in a hole against a really good team. We knew we had to play well and those turnovers and missing opportunities at the line and around the rim hurt us in the long run.”
One painful stretch started when Bijan Cortes had the ball poked out, then when Charlotte came up empty on the ensuing fast break, Kenny Pohto’s outlet pass was tipped and stolen, leading to an open Jackson Threadgill 3-pointer for a 17-4 lead. Pohto was a minus-12 in seven minutes and didn’t play after halftime.
Another costly sequence came near the end of the first half when Harlond Beverly’s kick-out pass was deflected and turned into a Charlotte layup, then less than 15 seconds later, Bell dribbled off his foot near the sideline out of bounds. Beverly finished with five points on 2-of-7 shooting and WSU was outscored by 18 points in his 25 minutes, his lowest total in a month.
“I thought we just needed some better effort and some better energy from some other guys,” Mills said.
Trailing by 16 points early in the second half, WSU appeared headed for its second straight blowout road loss. But the Shockers had one final push left in them, a 9-2 spurt to trim Charlotte’s lead to 58-52 with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining.
Bell (team-high 16 points off bench) kicked off the rally with a corner 3, then Ronnie DeGray III scored inside, Quincy Ballard (11 points) converted a put-back and Jacob Germany, playing in place of Pohto, scored on a tip-in to cap the run.
“We’ve always told Jacob to be ready,” Mills said of Germany, who played meaningful minutes for just the second time in the last three months. “In order to win four games in four days at the conference tournament, you’ve got to have everybody. Everyone has to stay engaged and he’s done that. He’s been a trooper in this process.”
Still needing multiple defensive stands following Germany’s basket, WSU instead gave up scores on Charlotte’s next three possessions — enough cushion for the 49ers to improve to 12-1 at Halton Arena this season.
This story was originally published February 18, 2024 at 1:05 PM.
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