Shocker basketball secures first 3-game AAC winning streak in 4 years: Takeaways
Wichita State men’s basketball coach Paul Mills has said this season that his team will have to win games “gritty, not pretty.”
The Shockers took that mantra to a new level Wednesday.
WSU overcame 20 turnovers and numerous other gaffes for its first three-game winning streak in American Athletic Conference play in four years, courtesy of a 69-64 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners at Koch Arena.
The Shockers (14-10) improved to 4-7 in conference while UTSA (10-14) dropped to 4-8.
Battling the flu, Quincy Ballard returned to the game late to help make a handful of key plays to help the Shockers pull out the win. WSU shot 41% from the field, but made four timely 3-pointers in the second half and benefited from the sixth double-double of the season from Corey Washington (17 points, 12 rebounds) and 15 points off the bench from Harlond Beverly.
After making 15 3s against the Shockers in San Antonio last month, UTSA shot just 6-of-24 beyond the arc on Wednesday. A balanced scoring effort by the Roadrunners was led by Raekwon Horton, who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. Shockers earn first 3-game AAC winning streak in 4 years
It hasn’t been easy sledding for Wichita State since Isaac Brown led the team to the 2021 American Athletic Conference championship.
As a matter of fact, the Shockers went three straight seasons without winning three straight conference games. That streak came to an end when WSU extended its conference winning streak to three games — the Shockers’ first extended streak since winning eight straight AAC games in 2021.
WSU trailed 47-39 midway through the second half, but buckled down and started producing stops and scores to open up a 64-57 lead on a 3-pointer by Xavier Bell with 3:22 remaining. The Roadrunners trimmed their deficit to 66-64 and had quality game-tying looks by Primo Spears and Marcus Millender in the final 90 seconds, but both missed.
Ballard, who was on a minutes restriction due to the flu, convinced his coaches to let him back in the game. Then he came up with arguably the three biggest plays down the stretch — a rebound, a free throw and then a block.
Xavier Bell iced the game with two free throws with 9.4 seconds left to provide the final score.
The victory for WSU over UTSA flip-flopped the teams in the conference standings. The Shockers moved into ninth place — hardly cause for celebration for a program expected by many to contend at the top of the league.
But it is a much-improved situation from two weeks ago, when WSU found itself in the cellar.
2. Wichita State overcomes major turnover problem to beat UTSA
After doing a good job of protecting the ball for the first two months of the season, Wichita State has struggled with turnovers in conference play.
The loss at Memphis was WSU’s worst performance, with 32% of possessions falling victim to a turnover, but Wednesday’s game was a close second. Not only did WSU once again pump out 20 turnovers, but the astronomical 27.8% turnover rate was the second-highest of the season.
It was a sloppy performance from the start, as WSU coughed up the ball on six of its first 10 times down the court. Not long after halftime, WSU had a spurt of three turnovers in less than a minute. Not to be outdone by that, the Shockers then turned the ball over four times in a 64-second stretch not long after.
While WSU leading scorer Xavier Bell hit a critical 3-pointer late, he struggled through an off-game with 12 points on 13 shots and a career-high seven turnovers. Meanwhile, WSU’s starting point guard Bijan Cortes was essentially benched with no assists and four turnovers in 10 minutes of action.
UTSA out-scored WSU 23-9 in points off turnovers, but WSU once again dominated the glass (50-29) and held a 17-9 advantage in second-chance points to counteract its turnovers.
3. Injuries impact Shockers for AAC game vs. UTSA
For the third straight game, Wichita State was missing its starting point guard, Justin Hill, who was wearing a walking boot as a precautionary measure to rehabilitate a toe injury.
While WSU did get another point guard back — freshman Zion Pipkin provided nine minutes off the bench after missing last weekend’s road win at South Florida — the flu bug traveled to teammate Quincy Ballard.
Ballard missed Tuesday’s practice and was on a minutes restriction — 10 minutes, according to WSU coach Paul Mills — for Wednesday’s game.
That meant after Ballard’s opening stretch to begin the second half, he was stuck on the bench from the 15-minute mark onward. It wasn’t until he convinced the coaches to re-insert him in the game with 2:18 left that Ballard made an appearance again for the Shockers.
While Ballard was limited to a season-low 14 minutes, the star big man finished with five points and six rebounds and made several crucial plays down the stretch. Shortly upon his return, Ballard grabbed a defensive rebound, made 1 of 2 free throws with 23.7 seconds left to extend WSU’s lead to 3 points, then swatted away a UTSA drive to help preserve the win for the Shockers.
Upcoming schedule for Shocker basketball
vs. Memphis, 11 a.m. (ESPN) on Sunday, Feb. 16
at Florida Atlantic, 8 p.m. (ESPN+) on Thursday, Feb. 20
vs. Tulane, 1 p.m. (ESPN+) on Sunday, Feb. 23
vs. UAB, 8 p.m. (ESPN2/U) on Thursday, Feb. 27
at North Texas, 8 p.m. (ESPN2) on Monday, March 3
American Athletic Conference basketball standings
10-1, Memphis (20-4)
9-3, North Texas (18-6)
8-3, UAB (15-9)
7-4, Florida Atlantic (14-10)
7-4 Tulane (13-11)
6-5, Temple (14-10)
6-6, East Carolina (14-11)
5-6, South Florida (12-12)
4-7, Wichita State (14-10)
4-8, UTSA (10-14)
3-8, Tulsa (9-15)
3-9, Rice (12-13)
2-10, Charlotte (9-16)
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 7:29 PM.
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