Wichita State basketball takeaways: Shockers steal an OT win over South Florida
Wichita State defied logic and the math of late-game odds Sunday afternoon.
What began as a 15-point road cushion dissolved into a 13-point hole, and for long stretches it looked as if the Shockers were headed for another bruising lesson away from home. Instead, they authored their most improbable win of the season: erasing the deficit, forcing overtime and then stealing an 86-85 victory at South Florida on Kenyon Giles’ stunning late basket at the Yuengling Center.
The comeback snapped the Bulls’ three-game win streak and lifted WSU to 11-8 overall and 3-3 in American Conference play. The game featured 11 lead changes, four ties and enough drama to hold any WSU fan over until Wednesday’s return to Koch Arena.
Giles scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-22 shooting, while Karon Boyd added 17 points and seven rebounds and Mike Gray Jr. chipped in 15 points. USF was led by 21 points by Joseph Pinion.
Despite the high-scoring affair, neither team shot particularly well: WSU shot 42% from the field, USF was at 39%.
Here are three takeaways from Wichita State’s most improbable win of the season.
1. Shockers prevail in a game of wild swings
Down six with 3:47 left in regulation, WSU didn’t chase shots or force offense. It leaned into its defense — and it changed everything.
Trailing 73-67, the Shockers strung together three consecutive defensive stops with disciplined, connected coverage, then turned those stops into a decisive 7-0 run that flipped the game. Boyd sparked it with an offensive-rebound putback. Giles followed with a momentum-swinging 3 and Gray finished the 60-second surge with a transition bucket after yet another stop, giving WSU a 74-73 lead with 1:42 to play.
The sequence forced USF to burn a timeout, but the reset didn’t help. The Bulls immediately turned the ball over and Dillon Battie came up with a steal and drew a foul. His split pair at the line pushed WSU ahead 75-73. By that point, the Shockers had completely locked in defensively, holding USF without a field goal for the final 5:35 of regulation.
Still, the game refused to end cleanly. Free throws tied it at 75, Gray answered with a smooth go-ahead mid-range jumper with 41 seconds left, and USF countered again at the line to make it 77-all. WSU then had two clean looks to win it in regulation.
The first came on a set play following a timeout where Gray came off a screen, only to have his attempt blocked at the last second. After a careless USF turnover gave WSU the ball back with 1.1 seconds left underneath its own basket, Will Berg slipped to the rim but missed a short hook as time expired.
Overtime was just as chaotic.
Dre Kindell bailed out a dying WSU possession with an off-balance 3 to put WSU ahead. After USF answered with a 3 of its own, Berg muscled in an offensive-rebound putback to put the Shockers up again. But the Bulls once again had the answer, as C.J. Brown put the home team up 85-84 with 1:02 remaining.
The situation appeared dire when Boyd missed a short jumper and USF rebounded, as the shot clock and the game clock were separated by less than a second.
But before WSU could even organize its defense to foul, Giles played the hero, deflecting a sloppy pass from Wes Enis, scooping up the steal and finishing at the other end for the go-ahead layup with 20.5 seconds left.
Needing one final stand, WSU produced it when Berg stood his ground on the baseline and forced a heavily contested miss underneath by USF star Izaiyah Nelson and then secured his 15th rebound of the game.
2. The brutal 10-minute stretch that hurt Wichita State
After WSU surged ahead 30-15 on the road at South Florida, the game turned abruptly and decisively.
Over a brutal 10-minute stretch spanning the final seven minutes of the first half and the opening three minutes after halftime, the Shockers were overwhelmed by a 36-8 run that completely flipped the script.
What had been a 15-point WSU cushion morphed into a 13-point deficit with USF storming out of the locker room to take a 51-38 lead.
The collapse was fueled by an offense that vanished. After scoring 30 points on its first 19 possessions, WSU managed just eight points over its next 21 trips. The Shockers went 2-for-12 during that stretch, failed to secure a single offensive rebound and committed six turnovers, many of which ignited USF’s transition attack and accelerated the momentum swing.
3. The Shockers built a lead... and lost it
After being largely noncompetitive two nights earlier at Florida Atlantic, WSU responded Sunday with a sharp opening. The Shockers raced to a 15-point lead just 11 minutes in, stunning the home crowd with a 15-0 burst fueled by 3s from Giles (two) and Gray.
Brian Amuneke capped the early surge with a transition 3 to make it 30-15, giving WSU five makes beyond the arc and firm control.
But as the Shockers have already learned early in American play, no cushion lasts long. A stretch of self-inflicted mistakes — turnovers and breakdowns at the point of attack — opened the door for USF to storm back with eight straight points at the rim in under two minutes.
Even a Paul Mills timeout failed to halt the momentum, as the Bulls ripped off a 21-5 run to briefly seize the lead. WSU steadied itself just enough to enter halftime ahead 37-36, but the tone was set: The Bulls had momentum on their home court.
This story was originally published January 18, 2026 at 3:52 PM.
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