Dre Kindell flips the script again, as Wichita State clamps down on FAU
Wichita State spent 28 minutes trading punches with Florida Atlantic on Saturday afternoon, waiting for someone to tilt senior day in the Shockers’ favor.
The answer wasn’t one of the three seniors honored before tipoff at Koch Arena. It wasn’t one of WSU’s five double-digit scorers, either.
It was Dre Kindell, the 5-foot-11 blur off the bench who turned the game by turning off FAU’s best scorer.
With Kindell hounding Kanaan Carlyle all over the floor in the second half, Wichita State flipped a one-point deficit into a runaway 88-70 victory. The Shockers (21-10, 13-5 American) extended their winning streak to six games and locked up the No. 2 seed and a triple bye to next Saturday’s 4 p.m. semifinal in Birmingham, Alabama.
“A lot of it had to do with Dre Kindell,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “Dre really limited touches (for Carlyle). We were going to be content playing 4-on-4 basketball, but we had to do a good job of eliminating him. And I thought Dre Kindell flipped the script.”
Kindell only scored two points, but his impact was everywhere. He handed out four assists while running the offense. And in his 21 minutes on the floor, WSU outscored FAU by 17 points. More importantly, his defense became the defining force in a game that felt even until it suddenly didn’t.
When FAU’s Isaiah Elohim scored a runner with 11:47 remaining, the Owls went ahead 61-60. It would be their last lead of the game. It would also be their last field goal.
From there, WSU strangled the Owls over the final 11-plus minutes. FAU missed its final 12 shots from the field and committed five turnovers over its final 20 possessions, scoring only nine points — all from the foul line — for a meager 0.45 points per possession. The Shockers finished the game on a 28-9 run.
That finish was especially striking considering how well FAU had played for most of the afternoon. Through the first 28 minutes, the Owls were shooting 56% from the field and matching WSU blow for blow. Carlyle was the biggest problem. The FAU star poured in 20 points in the first half on 8-of-11 shooting.
At halftime, Mills asked his staff what needed to change.
The answer was unanimous: stick Kindell on him.
Mills inserted the backup point guard with 15:41 left in the first half and never took him out again. Just as he had in WSU’s road win at Memphis, Kindell came off the bench and stayed on the floor late because the game called for his particular brand of chaos on defense.
Mills has joked before that Kindell has the energy of a toddler. On Saturday, that restless energy was the exact antidote WSU needed.
Kindell denied Carlyle catches on the wing, face-guarded him, stayed attached around screens and used his speed to make every drive labor-intensive. The only real mistake came when Kindell got caught reaching on Carlyle as he rose for a 3, sending him to the line for three free throws. Outside of that, Carlyle never looked comfortable again.
After scoring 20 in the first half, Carlyle had just six points after halftime and shot 1-of-6 from the field.
It was a role reversal from the first meeting on Jan. 15 when FAU’s defensive pressure smothered Kenyon Giles and held WSU’s leading scorer to a season-low two points. This time, the Shockers used a lot of those same principles to shut down Carlyle after halftime.
“It’s as simple as Dre is a dog,” WSU senior Karon Boyd said. “He wants to come in and make a big impact and fit in where he can. He comes up with big stops and steals. He lights that fire and we just feed off his energy and that’s when we went on that (run) when we started denying them.”
The sequence that changed everything came during WSU’s decisive 11-0 run midway through the second half.
Kindell forced Carlyle into two straight misses. On another possession, Giles used his own quickness to beat Carlyle to the spot on a drive and tied him up for a turnover. Suddenly, the one-point deficit had become a double-digit lead and Koch Arena sensed the game tipping for good.
The dagger came in fitting fashion: defense first, then a highlight.
When FAU tried to push the ball in transition, Giles snuck up from behind Josiah Parker and poked the ball loose. Boyd scooped up the steal and fired ahead to Dillon Battie, who exploded for a windmill dunk that nearly blew the top off the Roundhouse and pushed the Shockers ahead 80-67.
It was the loudest moment of senior day, as more than 8,000 fans roared in approval — reminded of the kind of basketball that used to win championships in Koch Arena.
It was somewhat fitting that the final margin was an 18-point win at Koch Arena, exactly 51 days after FAU had beaten the Shockers by 18 in Boca Raton. That Jan. 15 loss now looks like a clear turning point in the season. Since then, the Shockers have won 11 of 13 games and transformed themselves into one of the hottest teams in the American heading into the conference tournament.
“Shoutout to FAU for lighting the fire in us,” Giles said. “After that loss, we all talked about it. We got punked at their crib. But it helped us. We took that loss as a lesson.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2026 at 8:46 PM.
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