What made Wichita State’s collapse at the foul line in DePaul loss so bizarre
Free throws are supposed to be the constant, the one part of the basketball game untouched by scouting reports or defensive schemes.
On Saturday at Koch Arena, however, they became Wichita State’s undoing.
The Shockers’ 61-58 loss to DePaul was defined by a stunning collapse at the foul line, where WSU went 13 of 28. The 15 misses tied for the most by the program in a single game over the past 20 years, according to StatHead, and turned what could have been a late-game comeback into a slow, agonizing unraveling.
“You’ve got to find a way to win that game,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “I mean, 13 of 28 from the free-throw line, c’mon. We have to be better. We’ve got to be able to take advantage of those moments.”
What made the collapse even more baffling was who it came from.
This was not a result of the wrong shooters being at the line. Kenyon Giles, T.J. Williams, Dre Kindell, Mike Gray Jr., Emmanuel Okorafor and Karon Boyd had collectively shot 80.3% (110 of 137) on free throws through the first 10 games.
On Saturday, those same six shooters combined for 46.4% at the line. Boyd finished 2 for 6; Williams was 1 of 5; Okorafor went 2 for 4; Gray was 0 for 2; Kindell was 4 of 6; Giles was 4 of 5.
Mills tried to shoulder the blame afterward, pointing out that he had discontinued his “Free Throw Club” — an after-practice program where players shooting below 75% are required to return to Koch Arena and make roughly 200 free throws.
“Blame that on me,” Mills said. “That falls on me.”
The irony is that Gray (86%), Giles (85%), Williams (85%), Kindell (81%) and Okorafor (78%) would have all been exempt from the extra work anyway.
What made it even more aggravating is that the misses came in waves, especially late.
WSU was just 3 of 11 at the line in the final eight minutes, during a stretch when it had repeated chances to tie the game or take the lead. Eight different possessions in that span came with the Shockers trailing by two points or fewer. They went 0 for 4 from the field, 1 for 7 at the stripe and committed three turnovers.
“Just sucks,” said Giles, WSU’s leading scorer. “You work so hard for that moment, you want to take over in that moment, so when it rolls back out, you’re like, ‘Man.’ We’ve just got to keep attacking the moment.”
The loss dropped WSU to 6-5, a mediocre record that accurately reflects the up-and-down start to the season. But this one felt different. Against a DePaul team from the Big East that entered ranked No. 172 in the NET, the Shockers were good enough defensively — holding the Blue Demons to just 12 points in the final 12 minutes — to win.
They simply could not convert at the foul line.
After an emphatic 16-2 start to the game, WSU’s offense began to bog down and DePaul began picking apart the Shockers’ pick-and-roll coverage. DePaul completed a stunning 23-point turnaround in a 20-minute span, building a 51-42 lead midway through the second half.
“They’re a good team and they’re well-coached, so we knew they were going to have a strong chin,” DePaul coach Chris Holtmann said. “At the end of the day, you’ve just got to hold on and make enough plays there in the end to win.”
WSU just couldn’t make the final play to get over the hump. And the blown opportunities stacked up quickly and painfully.
There was one possession that saw WSU have three good chances to score: a left-handed layup by Williams, an open Giles 3, then a Williams free throw in the bonus — all missed.
Boyd was fouled at the rim with 6: minutes, 48 seconds left and a chance to tie the game. He missed both. Kindell was fouled with 5:12 left and had a chance to tie, but split his pair to make it 53-52. Moments later, Boyd’s put-back for the lead hung on the front of the rim for a full second before falling off.
Then came the inexplicable possession in the final three minutes with WSU trailing by two that was simply dribbled away. Giles pounded the air out of the ball for nearly 15 seconds before dishing it late for what turned into a shot-clock violation.
“That was on me,” Giles said. “I dribbled the clock out, and I gave Dre a grenade. I over dribbled. I thought I saw something, I didn’t, and I just held it, held it, held it and put Dre in a really bad situation. That was all on me.”
Still, WSU had one final lifeline.
In the final 20 seconds and WSU trailing 59-58, Boyd played tremendous defense to force a turnover by Layden Blocker and draw a loose-ball foul with 15.2 seconds left. He walked to the line with a chance to flip the game for the first time in 27 minutes.
Both shots were long. DePaul rebounded, made two free throws at the other end, then survived when WSU’s potential game-tying triple by Giles rimmed in and out.
The loss stood apart from WSU’s previous heartbreaks. While all five losses have come by six points or fewer, this one featured chance after chance for the Shockers to seize control — not just one or two moments.
Mills declined to call it a step back from the road win at Northern Iowa.
“Disappointed, but not frustrated,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like a step back. If there wasn’t fight there, that’s a concern.”
The fight was there. The free throws were not.
“We missed those free throws,” Giles said. “We did. Nobody else. We’ve got to do a better job.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM.
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