How Wichita State flipped the script to lock down Charlotte for revenge win
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wichita State forced 15 turnovers and turned them into a 22-5 edge.
- WSU held Charlotte to 0.96 points per possession and league-worst eFG%.
- Will Berg neutralized Anton Bonke, aiding WSU’s 74-64 home win.
For the second straight meeting against Charlotte, the Wichita State men’s basketball team built a double-digit lead in the second half.
This time, the Shockers made it stand up, closing out a 74-64 victory over the 49ers at Koch Arena on Wednesday, a sharp reversal from the earlier matchup when they surrendered an 18-point cushion in a double-overtime loss in Charlotte.
In that first meeting, Charlotte scored almost at will, shared the ball freely and punished WSU inside and on the glass, producing one of the most efficient outings any opponent has posted against the Shockers this season.
The rematch looking nothing like that script.
Wichita State bottled up one of the American Conference’s most efficient offenses, holding the 49ers to their worst league performance of the season. The Shockers dictated where shots came from, flipped the turnover margin, won the battle between the 7-foot-2 centers and methodically wore the 49ers down to knock them off their perch atop the league standings.
Here are three areas where the rematch completely changed.
Wichita State took away Charlotte’s playmaking engine
The biggest difference from the first meeting showed up immediately in the passing lanes and help gaps.
In the double-overtime game, Charlotte hummed offensively at 1.39 points per possession. Dezayne Mingo orchestrated everything with 26 points and 10 assists, as the 49ers finished with 15 assists and only nine turnovers as a team.
WSU’s help-heavy approach gave Mingo clear reads and easy kick-outs. That was gone in the rematch.
Charlotte managed just five assists and committed 15 turnovers on Wednesday, finishing at 0.96 points per possession — the first time any conference opponent held the 49ers under 1.07 PPP. Charlotte’s assist rate cratered to a season-worst 20.8% and its effective field goal percentage dipped to 47.4%, also its worst in league play.
“We needed to not help and sag off as much and be in gaps in order to not allow them to get the assisted buckets they were able to get there,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “We did a really good job of making those guys turn around and they had to make plays for themselves. We weren’t going to allow them to make plays for others.”
Instead of over-rotating, WSU stayed home on shooters and turned Charlotte’s drivers into finishers in traffic. Mingo still scored an efficient 24 points, but he had just two assists and far fewer clean passing lanes.
“We did a good job of just staying home,” Mills said. “What we needed to do is make those guys go make shots at the rim. If they made shots at the rim, God bless them. But we weren’t going to do all of this sagging off and let Mingo just pick us part and get 10 assists again.”
After a tight first half that ended with WSU up 35-34, the defense tightened. Charlotte shot just 33.3% after halftime, went 1 of 9 from 3 and committed six turnovers to pump out a measly 0.88 PPP in the second half.
WSU defensive stopper Karon Boyd saw the difference in how possessions ended.
“There’s definitely room for improvement, but we did a pretty good job of making shots difficult for them,” Boyd said. “Turning shooters into drivers and really just not letting them get to where they wanted to go.”
Will Berg got his revenge against Charlotte’s Anton Bonke
The first meeting featured a decisive interior loss for WSU.
Charlotte’s 7-foot-2 center Anton Bonke finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds (six offensive) and three blocks. He controlled the paint and outplayed WSU’s own 7-2 center, Will Berg, who had decent counting stats but struggled with efficiency and impact.
Round two belonged to Berg.
Berg finished with eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks, but his real value came in neutralizing Bonke’s effectiveness on offense. Charlotte’s big man was held to just four points on 2-of-5 shooting, just one offensive rebound and five turnovers. Add it all up and Bonke posted his lowest offensive rating of the season, while WSU won Berg’s 26 minutes on the floor by seven points.
“He’s a great player, so it’s a challenge when you’re playing against one of the better bigs in the league,” Berg said. “I wanted to step on the floor and prove myself.”
Late in the second half, Bonke tried to attack Berg one-on-one on the block, spun baseline and lost the dribble out of bounds. Berg stood over the play and clapped emphatically — a visible sign of a matchup turned.
Mills loved the edge Berg brought to the rematch.
“Having seen a lot of this league, I’m taking Will every day of the week and twice on Sunday,” Mills said. “I love that guy. He needs to bring the intensity. I don’t care about missing shots. I don’t care about missing free throws. That’s going to happen. We don’t expect you to win every fight, but we do expect you to fight every fight and I thought his fight was really good (Wednesday).”
WSU did well to limit Charlotte’s usual strength areas. The 49ers posted just a 27.8% offensive rebounding rate, below their norm, and attempted just 14 free throws, also well below their norm (the 24.6% foul rate was the lowest in conference play). A team that had shot to the top of the conference standings by thriving on free throws and second chances got neither in volume against WSU.
This time, Wichita State’s big lead held up
The emotional scar from the first meeting was obvious: after the Shockers blew the 18-point lead in Charlotte, they laid an egg in a home loss to Rice the following game.
When WSU built another big second-half cushion Wednesday, there was some real tension when missed free throws began to pile up and a couple turnovers led to easy buckets for Charlotte.
But the Shockers showed some growth in never letting themselves ever find any real danger, as they maintained at least a seven-point lead for the final 11 minutes of the game.
“We’re together as a team,” WSU star Kenyon Giles added. “We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, but we stayed together through all of those. It was just another bump in the road and we persevered.”
A decisive 10-0 run broke the game open. It started with disruption and hustle, as Dillon Battie deflected an inbounds pass, leading to a Brian Amuneke steal and runout finish. On the next trip down, Battie rotated over to block Mingo at the rim and Emmanuel Okorafor scored on the other end.
Moments later, Battie slid into help again and tied up Bonke on a roll down the lane for another turnover. Giles capped the surge with a 3 to push the lead to double digits and it eventually swelled to 17.
Those 15 forced turnovers turned into a 22-5 advantage in points off turnovers for WSU.
“We just learned from the situation when we had a pretty good lead and we kind of smoked it,” Giles said. “We made that mistake, so it was like, ‘Let’s not make another one.’”
The win extended WSU’s home winning streak to four games, as the Shockers (14-9, 6-4 American) climbed to fifth place in the conference standings. During the home winning streak, WSU has limited opponents to an average of 62.5 points and 0.91 points per possession — a stark contrast to the 87.4 points per game and 1.21 points per possession opponents score against WSU when the Shockers go on the road in conference play.
Charlotte coach Aaron Fearne noted how tough it is becoming to beat WSU on its home floor lately.
“That’s a tough environment against an even tougher team,” Fearne said. “You’re going to face those in this conference, and it’s how you respond that determines wins and losses. Tonight, we didn’t have a good enough response to pull through.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 6:03 AM.
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