Takeaways: Wichita State’s upset bid comes up short vs. Memphis in AAC tournament
Wichita State produced some of its best play, but also some of its worst in critical moments.
The Shockers went toe-to-toe with the 16th-ranked team in the country, but in a game with such a thin margin for error, WSU’s mistakes proved too costly to overcome. WSU fell 83-80 to top-seeded Memphis in Friday’s quarterfinal game in the American Athletic Conference tournament at Dickies Arena.
WSU had no answer for the AAC Player of the Year, as P.J. Haggerty scored a career-high 42 points, and made a few too many mistakes along the way that spoiled what otherwise was an inspired effort. WSU was led by 19 points from Bijan Cortes, who hit a career-high five triples, and doled out five assists.
Judging by how WSU head coach Paul Mills and senior Xavier Bell spoke afterward, it was the final game of the season for the Shockers, which finished with a 19-14 record — one win short of their first 20-win season since 2020.
Here are three takeaways from Friday’s game:
1. Mistakes spoiled an inspired comeback bid
Taking down a nationally ranked team twice in the span of a month is a difficult task.
The Shockers made the challenge an even more uphill one with some of their mistakes in the second half.
Like when WSU turned the ball over on an inbounds pass that led directly to a Memphis basket at the other end for a second time. Or when WSU failed to secure a defensive rebound on a missed free throw and an air ball shot, which both times were converted into second-chance points for Memphis. Or when over-dribbling turnovers led to more fast breaks for the Tigers and easy scores.
“When you’re dealing with one-possession games, this stuff matters,” Mills said. “Every free throw matters, every shot matters. And it’s not just at the end of the game. I mean, something could happen at the 18-minute mark of the first half. So these are valuable lessons.
“The margin is thin this time of year. You have to be on point about a lot of things.”
All of those mistakes contributed to WSU falling into a 72-61 hole with 6:34 left, but the team showed its resolve with one last push.
Quincy Ballard scored two straight baskets, Cortes hit a fifth 3-pointer, then Ballard swatted a shot and Bell scored at the other end to trim the deficit to 74-70 with 3:32 left. WSU thought it came even closer moments later when Ballard tipped in a miss, but officials deemed the ball to still be in the cylinder following a review.
It was a critical swing, as Tyrese Hunter drilled a 3 at the other end for Memphis following the call to put the Tigers up 77-70.
WSU again rallied behind a cascade of free throws from Bell, who finished 10-of-10 from the stripe for 18 points, to cut the deficit to three points multiple times. But Memphis always had an answer, whether it was a Haggerty floater or getting to the foul line.
The Shockers had one final chance when Ronnie DeGray III free throws cut Memphis’ lead to 83-80 with 2.1 seconds left, then the Tigers turned the ball over on the inbounds pass; Colby Rogers fouled Harlond Beverly to send him to the foul line for two shots with 1.1 seconds left.
But Beverly missed the first shot and intentionally missed the second, with Memphis securing the rebound and the win.
2. Memphis reversed the rebounding advantage
When WSU knocked off Memphis in overtime at Koch Arena last month, the Shockers used 19 offensive rebounds to score 18 second-chance points.
In Friday’s game, Memphis completely bottled up what is typically is WSU’s biggest advantage.
The Shockers were limited to just eight offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points, as Memphis dominated the glass with 14 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points of its own.
During its 6-game winning streak in February, WSU thrived when its trio of “crashers” — Corey Washington, DeGray and Ballard — could relentlessly attack the glass when a shot went up. But Memphis is the rare team in the conference that could match WSU’s aggression. It also didn’t help that Washington was limited by foul trouble throughout the game.
When WSU absolutely needed a rebound, it failed too many times to secure one. Memphis scored a crucial 3-pointer by Hunter with 2:09 left to go up 77-70 on a second chance, then grabbed another offensive rebound the ensuing possession to help ice its win.
3. The first 20 minutes were a war
Wichita State landed quite the opening punch, scoring 20 points in its first 10 possessions and cashing in on all four of its 3-pointers.
Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was forced to call a timeout not even six minutes into the game, as Cortes swished yet another triple to put the Shockers up 20-10 on the nation’s 16th-ranked team.
Falling behind that by that many that early brought out the desperation in the Tigers, as they cranked up the pressure and made WSU feel the heat with their defense. Within three minutes, Memphis had whittled its deficit to 20-19.
From there, it was an entertaining back-and-forth battle between the two teams that featured a little bit of everything — highlight-reel plays, fouls that aggravated both sides, costly turnovers and tremendous shot-making.
From a WSU perspective, the highlight of the first half once again belonged to center Ballard. The big man even sparked a reaction from the pro-Memphis crowd with his block on an alley-oop dunk attempt by Moussa Cisse, then ran down the court and slammed home a follow-up dunk within seconds.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM.
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