Takeaways from Wichita State basketball’s first loss of the season at Boise State
Wichita State had almost clawed all the way back from a 15-point second-half deficit when the ball found Mike Gray Jr. one last time.
With the final seconds expiring, Gray rose from 30 feet away with a clean look that would have forced overtime. Instead, the shot struck the back rim and kicked away at the buzzer, sealing a 62-59 win for Boise State at ExtraMile Arena on Tuesday night.
“It felt good,” Gray said of his final shot. “I feel like whenever I take a shot, I always feel like it’s going in. I thought that had a chance.”
It handed WSU (3-1) its first loss of the season and extended the Broncos’ (4-1) winning streak to four in a game where both sides felt like they could have played better.
Kenyon Giles (15 points) and Gray (12) were the only Shockers in double figures, while Emmanuel Okorafor provided a spark off the bench with eight points and seven rebounds and Karon Boyd grabbed a team-high nine boards. Drew Fielder led Boise State with a game-high 17 in a grind-it-out contest where both teams shot under 40%. Here are the three takeaways from Wichita State’s performance.
1. Wichita State’s clean offense didn’t travel in Boise State loss
Coming off one of the most efficient outings in program history — 1.48 points per possession, crisp shooting and just two turnovers in 64 trips — the hope was that WSU’s electric offense would travel. Some regression was expected with the Shockers playing their first road game against a quality opponent, but Tuesday proved to be more of a grind than expected.
Even amid their struggles, which pushed the deficit to as large as 15 in the second half, the Shockers still fought back. They trimmed the margin to 54-50 with 6:46 remaining and earned a prime look for Will Berg that could have tightened the game even further. His close-range attempt missed, and Boise State responded with six straight points to restore a double-digit cushion.
The Broncos left the door open by committing two turnovers and missing four of six free throws in their final five possessions. That allowed the Shockers to cut the deficit to 62-59 on a Dre Kindell layup with 9.2 seconds left. When BSU’s Javan Buchanan missed two straight free throws with 6.5 seconds left, WSU rebounded and found Gray for a potential game-tying shot but it missed.
Ultimately, WSU’s 11 turnovers proved too costly. After playing essentially a mistake-free game last time out, the Shockers committed several damaging miscues at the worst moments — dribbling into traffic, a three-second violation, moving screens and poor decisions. For a road team trying to dig out of a hole, those kinds of turnovers are even more punishing.
It also didn’t help that Boise State largely neutralized WSU’s usual edge on the glass. The Shockers finished with a 38-32 rebounding advantage, yet the Broncos actually outscored them 12-11 in second-chance points — a category WSU has typically controlled.
2. The Shockers couldn’t survive without Will Berg
WSU won the 19 minutes that the 7-foot-2 center played by 13 points on Tuesday. They were outscored by 16 in the 21 minutes he didn’t.
Berg’s presence on the floor swallowed space and altered shots, but early foul trouble limited him to just five first-half minutes. He finished with five points, seven rebounds and a block.
Emmanuel Okorafor chipped in eight points and seven assists on the bench in a spirited effort, but WSU struggled to defend with him on the floor. The Shockers were outscored by 12 points in Okorafor’s 12 points and by three points during the three-minute stretch that freshman Noah Hill had to play in the first half due to Berg’s foul trouble.
By no means was Berg perfect, as he missed a handful of shots from close range, including one late that could have swung momentum, but his presence alone on the floor seems to alter games in the Shockers’ favor. And on Tuesday, his absence was the most glaring it’s been all season.
3. Wichita State faced first adversity of the season
The Shockers had trailed for only six minutes — all during the first half of games — during their 3-0 start at Koch Arena. They hadn’t faced any real adversity until Tuesday, when sluggish offense and early foul trouble put them in a 32-27 halftime hole at Boise State.
WSU missed a golden chance to seize control early, as Boise State opened the night by misfiring on its first eight shots. The Shockers built an early 7-0 lead, but the Broncos quickly erased it behind five first-half 3-pointers.
WSU spent the final nine minutes of the half playing from behind, confronting its first true challenge of the season.
The free-flowing, fast-paced offense that piled up 200 points in its last two games didn’t travel to Boise. During the first 20 minutes, the Shockers were slowed down, forced into contested looks deep into the shot clock and unable to find a rhythm. They shot just 39.3% from the field in the first half and scored 0.93 points per possession — their first time failing to crack 1 point per possession in a half this season.
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM.
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