Barrage of triples send Wichita State basketball on first winning streak since November
The pre-game speech was a simple one for Paul Mills ahead of the final game at Koch Arena for the Wichita State men’s basketball team this season.
“There are some non-negotiables in basketball,” Mills said, “and one of them is you always win on senior night. Losing is not an option.”
The Shockers responded with one of their most free-flowing, fun games of the season to trounce Rice, 87-66, on Saturday night in front of 7,034 fans in the Roundhouse to send their two seniors, Dalen Ridgnal and Jacob Germany, out as winners.
WSU made a season-high 14 3-pointers, shot a season-best 63.6% beyond the arc, notched 18 assists and collected 15 more rebounds than Rice to turn a back-and-forth tussle in the first half into a blowout win.
And for the first time since November, the Shockers (13-17, 5-12 AAC) are on a winning streak.
“It was a really fun game,” said Harlond Beverly, who scored a season-high 23 points with five rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. “It felt like everything was pretty much going our way. Our shots were very open because we were willing to pass the ball and we did a good job knocking them down because they were so open.”
Of course, everything looks better when a team that was ranked No. 304 in the country in 3-point accuracy makes as many triples as WSU did on Saturday. The team has only hit double-digit 3-pointers once in American Athletic Conference play, but came one away from tying the program record when walk-on Trevor McBride swished a triple late.
Colby Rogers did a lot of the heavy lifting for WSU’s outside-shooting numbers, as the 6-foot-4 sharpshooter hit a career-high seven 3-pointers to score a game-high 25 points against Rice — one game after scoring a career-high 29 points against UAB. In his last two games, Rogers has 12 3-pointers and 54 points on 79.3% effective field goal percentage.
“It’s just the law of averages,” Mills said after Rogers scorched the nets for the second straight game following a four-game shooting slump. “In the previous games, he hadn’t been shooting it well, but you knew he was plenty capable. He just had a slump. But he stayed the course and he continued to put in the work.”
Ridgnal started his senior game with a bang, hitting three 3-pointers in the opening six minutes and finishing with 11 points. Even Beverly, who was a 20% 3-point shooter, joined in on the fun with three straight makes beyond the arc in the second half.
The barrage of 3s covered up some suspect defense in the first half, as Rice made 53% of its shots to keep pace with WSU. The Owls led 39-35 entering the final three minutes, but WSU ended on a 7-0 run, capped by another late triple by Rogers to close out the first half and put WSU up 42-39 at halftime.
After clawing out the team’s first AAC road win on Wednesday, WSU was determined to build momentum at the start of March.
The Shockers did just that with a 17-6 run in the first six minutes of the second half to finally gain separation and open up a 14-point lead.
“You want to be playing your best basketball in March and we’re on pace to be doing that now,” Rogers said.
“It gives us confidence going into tournament season,” Beverly added. “You see a lot of teams win four straight games and make some noise. We are the caliber of team where we could make some noise the next couple of weeks.”
When Rice tried to scratch its way back in the game, cutting the deficit to 10, WSU responded with a 25-9 knockout blow with Beverly and Kenny Pohto leading the charge.
Pohto scored eight points, including three put-backs following offensive rebounds, and grabbed six rebounds during the 8-minute span, while Beverly slashed his way to 11 points and three assists during the rally. Beverly ended the rally with a layup and three straight assists, capped by a dump-off in transition for Ronnie DeGray III to finish while being fouled — a 3-point play that staked WSU to a 26-point lead.
“When you shoot that well, it’s pretty fun,” Mills said. “People don’t always necessarily get to see it, but growth happens behind closed doors. It doesn’t always happen in the light. These guys have always been after, ‘How do we get better this entire process?’ With something like this, you shoot it that well and it’s a feeling that you’ll carry with you.”
Saturday’s romp was a treat for the fans who stuck with the team through difficult times, as WSU finished its second straight season with a losing record (4-5) inside the Roundhouse against conference opponents. For the last three seasons, WSU’s home-court advantage has significantly dipped with a 12-15 record against AAC teams at Koch Arena.
The win on Saturday also keeps WSU’s chances alive of avoiding a bottom-four finish in the AAC standings, and essentially a death sentence of needing to win five games in five days. The Shockers (5-12) are one of six teams in a jumbled race to sort out seeds No. 9-14 at the conference tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, which includes Tulsa (6-11), Rice (5-11), UTSA (5-12), Tulane (4-12) and Temple (4-12).
A win at Tulane in next Friday’s regular-season finale at Tulane would greatly increase WSU’s chances of avoiding a Wednesday date in Fort Worth.
“I’ve run every prognostication software there is to try to figure out where we’ll land and I think we’ll be somewhere between nine and 13,” Mills said. “At the end of the day, we have to control the controllables. Everybody in the American not named Florida Atlantic, we’re all in the same boat. Everybody needs to win the conference tournament.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2024 at 7:45 PM.
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