Quincy Ballard battled flu to make game-saving block that lifted WSU basketball to win
It turns out, there is something that can slow down Wichita State double-double machine Quincy Ballard.
The flu.
Illness sidelined the 6-foot-11 big man from Tuesday’s practice and forced the WSU coaching staff to enter Wednesday’s game against UTSA with a plan of playing their starting center no more than 10 minutes.
“This wasn’t going to be the Michael Jordan flu game where we were going to play him and see how much he can handle,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said.
Ballard hit that threshold early in the second half, which glued him to the bench from the 15-minute mark on. But with the Shockers clinging to a 2-point lead entering the final two minutes of the game, Ballard pleaded with his coaches to let him return.
“I’m good,” Ballard told Mills.
With the program’s first 3-game American Athletic Conference winning streak in four years on the line, Mills acquiesced and inserted Ballard for the final 2 minutes, 18 seconds. It proved to be the winning decision.
Ballard came through with three crucial plays in the final 30 seconds — a defensive rebound, a free throw to extend WSU’s lead to 3, then a block to help secure the win — to help the Shockers prevail with a 69-64 victory over UTSA at Koch Arena.
“That was such a momentum-builder and really allowed us to get the win,” Mills said.
The illness limited Ballard to a season-low output in points (5), field goals (1) and minutes (12), but when WSU needed him the most, the big man was there to deliver.
Ballard’s defensive rebound late highlighted another dominant effort by the Shockers on the glass. They registered a season-high 50 rebounds (boarding out at 83% on the defensive end and retrieving 42% of their misses) and out-rebounded the Roadrunners by 21.
But his biggest play of the game came after he split a pair of free throws with 23.7 seconds left to extend WSU’s lead to 67-64. UTSA guard Marcus Millender attempted to drive past Ballard down the left side of the lane, but the WSU big man went stride for stride with the star UTSA guard and then erased Millender’s layup almost as soon as the ball left his hands.
Ballard currently leads the AAC in blocks per game (1.87) and ranks 30th nationally, while he now has 131 career blocks and is one away from tying Robert Elmore for third in the program’s career blocks list. Ballard’s career 1.95 blocks per game is on pace to top Antoine Carr’s mark of 1.87 per game for the best in WSU history.
“He’s the best in the country, in my opinion,” WSU teammate Harlond Beverly said of Ballard’s shot-blocking prowess. “That really gives the on-ball defender a lot of relief because we know we can press up and send them down there. And he’s really good at not fouling, as well.”
The best kind of Ballard blocks are the ones that he manages to keep in bounds and WSU recovers. That was the case this time, as Ballard swatted Millender’s shot off the backboard and created a loose-ball situation with WSU’s Corey Washington and UTSA’s Damari Monsanto both vying for the ball.
Washington was the first to the floor and that extra effort is what won him the game’s most important 50-50 ball, which he then shoveled to Xavier Bell from the ground. Bell was then fouled with 9.3 seconds left and made both free throws to ice the victory.
But it all revolved around Washington’s hustle play coupled with Ballard’s crucial block.
“Quincy just made a great play on the ball and then I saw it come my way,” Washington said. “I saw (Monsanto) kind of bobble it a bit and I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to make sure we got the ball and secured the win.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 6:02 AM.
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