Wichita State basketball takeaways: Shockers earn bounce-back win vs. North Texas
Wichita State finally looked comfortable playing from in front again.
Behind a blistering, career-best scoring night from Kenyon Giles, the Shockers pulled away from North Texas for a 78-67 victory Sunday afternoon at Koch Arena, snapping a two-game slide in conference play and earning their first home win in the American Conference this season.
WSU controlled the game for most of the second half, building a lead that swelled to 17 points before a late lull allowed North Texas to creep within six.
Each time the margin tightened, Giles had an answer.
The senior guard poured in 33 points on an ultra-efficient 13-of-17 shooting performance, delivering timely baskets that steadied the Shockers down the stretch and sealed their first win over the Mean Green since becoming conference mates.
The win lifted Wichita State to 10-7 overall and 2-2 in conference play, while North Texas fell to 10-7 and 1-3. After splitting the two-game homestand, the Shockers now head back on the road this week with trips to Florida Atlantic on Thursday and South Florida on Sunday.
1. Kenyon Giles sets another career high mostly inside the arc
Kenyon Giles has built his reputation this season by lighting it up from deep, entering Sunday ranked seventh nationally with 56 made 3s and 11th at 3.5 per game — a stark contrast to last season, when Xavier Bell led Wichita State with just 35 for the entire year.
Against North Texas, Giles showed he can hurt defenses in far more ways than one.
Rather than living beyond the arc, the senior guard carved up one of the nation’s stingiest defenses almost entirely inside it. He slithered to the rim, stopped on a dime for quick pull-ups and leaned into his trademark fadeaways.
Only one player all season had topped 20 points against North Texas’ top-30 defense, but Giles shattered that mark with a career-high 33 points on 13-of-17 shooting. Just four of those attempts came from 3-point range — though he buried all four.
Giles scored 12 straight points early in the second half to balloon the lead, then delivered late with back-to-back 3s to close it out. Through four games in the American Conference, he’s averaging 23.8 points per game.
Giles has either matched or exceeded his career best in scoring in three of his last four performances. On Sunday, he again one-upped himself by scoring 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting after halftime. It was the most points by a Shocker in a game since Markis McDuffie’s 34-point outburst vs. Temple on March 15, 2019 and Giles’ 33 ranked tied for fourth-most points in a game by a WSU player since 2000.
2. Shockers find success at the rim again
For a team that entered the day near the bottom nationally in finishing, WSU found better production in places it has consistently lived this season.
The Shockers came in converting just 52.7% of their shots at the rim — No. 351 nationally and nearly 10 percentage points below the national average — a troubling trend heading into a matchup with a North Texas defense designed to choke off paint touches.
The Mean Green’s no-middle scheme has been elite at doing exactly that, ranking top 50 nationally in limiting rim attempts and climbing to No. 6 in the country over its previous five games.
While full shot-location data was not immediately available, WSU’s internal tracking showed the Shockers went 13-of-25 on layups and dunks. Overall, WSU shot a healthy 51% from the field, including 21-of-40 on 2-point attempts.
Those numbers suggest Wichita State did a decent portion of its damage away from the rim, a reality that matched the eye test. With North Texas walling off the paint, the Shockers leaned heavily into the midrange, where Giles was particularly lethal, turning a defensive strength of the Mean Green into a workable compromise for WSU’s offense.
3. Dillon Battie moves into the WSU starting lineup
With WSU’s depth at power forward stretched thin, sophomore Dillon Battie was suddenly thrust into a spotlight he hadn’t yet occupied.
The week began with season-ending surgery for Jaret Valencia after he ruptured his left Achilles tendon on Dec. 27. By Sunday, the situation worsened when starter T.J. Williams was ruled out while still working through concussion protocol following head-to-head contact late in Wednesday’s loss to Rice.
That left Battie, who was averaging 10.3 minutes, as the lone option in the power-forward rotation.
Making his first career start, Battie delivered an energetic first impression: a season-high 10 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a block. His impact was most pronounced early, when his nonstop motor helped lift an offense that periodically bogged down.
Battie’s game is built on aggression — putting his head down, attacking his spots and forcing defenders to react — a style reflected in his eye-popping free-throw rate. He finished the first half alone with seven points and six rebounds, including four on the offensive glass, helping WSU build a 10-point halftime lead.
Williams is expected back for Thursday’s trip to Florida Atlantic, but Battie’s effort likely earned him a larger role moving forward.
This story was originally published January 11, 2026 at 4:10 PM.
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