Wichita State climbs from deep hole, then falls in season-ending loss at Tulsa
For 32 minutes, Wichita State refused to let its basketball season die.
What looked like a blowout, then a humiliation, then the kind of night that gets buried in the history books as soon as it ends, somehow transformed into one of the grittiest comebacks in program history. The Shockers absorbed Tulsa’s early haymakers in a hostile road environment, climbed out of a 24-point crater, erased every bit of that deficit and even moved in front late.
And then, with the finish line finally in sight, it all slipped away.
Wichita State’s season came to a heartbreaking end Tuesday night in an 83-79 loss to Tulsa in the regional final round of the NIT, a defeat that was as cruel as it was memorable. The Shockers finished 24-12, their most wins in a season since 2018, but they were left to process the sting of getting so close to one more step after authoring a comeback that tied the largest in school history.
By the end, the pain wasn’t in how Wichita State started. It was in how much it had invested to get all the way back.
Because once the Shockers dug themselves out of that 24-point hole, once they found belief where there should have been none, once they finally turned a nightmare into a real chance to win, this became a game they could see themselves stealing.
“I knew we had a pretty tough chin,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “I knew we could take a punch. We’ve responded the right way all year.”
That is what made the final minutes so brutal.
The opening eight minutes had gone about as poorly as possible. Wichita State trailed 30-6 in a blur of missed shots, turnovers, broken assignments and lost rebounds. Tulsa was flying around with energy, confidence and a home crowd feeding every possession, while the Shockers looked rattled and overwhelmed.
“In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘There’s no way we’re going out like this,’” WSU star Kenyon Giles said.
The worst sequence of all was the one that pushed the deficit to its low point. Tulsa’s Jaylen Lawal made a jumper, then Dre Kindell was whistled for a foul while the ball was in the air, giving the Golden Hurricane another possession. Tulsa took full advantage when Ade Popoola drilled a corner 3 and was fouled by Brian Amuneke for a four-point play, a dizzying six-point possession that stretched the score to 30-6.
Eight minutes into the game, Wichita State was staring down history in the worst way. To win, it would have to match the biggest comeback in school history, the 24-point rally from the second half of a 66-62 win at SMU on March 1, 2020.
“We just reminded the guys, ‘Let’s hit singles,” Mills said. “We’re not going to get back this 24-point deficit in a single play.”
At halftime, Tulsa led 52-36 and had buried 10 3-pointers. WSU had made only one. The Shockers were being beaten by 27 points from beyond the arc.
And yet, even then, there were small signs that Wichita State wasn’t going away quietly.
Out of the break, Dillon Battie ignited the run WSU desperately needed. Battie scored seven points during a 10-2 burst, punctuating it with a steal and breakaway dunk that cut Tulsa’s lead to 55-46 and forced Golden Hurricane coach Eric Konkol to call timeout. WSU kept coming after the break, trimming the deficit to 55-48 with a transition layup and suddenly forcing the crowd to think about something it had not considered earlier.
What if this game wasn’t over?
That question only grew louder as the Shockers continued to chip away.
Tulsa tried to answer. Myles Rigsby scored to halt the surge. Romad Dean picked off a lazy inbounds pass and turned it into two free throws. Miles Barnstable, left free for a moment, knocked down his fifth 3-pointer of the night.
But the Shockers never stopped pressing.
Without their usual perimeter punch, they found another route back into the game: the foul line. A team that entered the night ranked 320th nationally in free-throw percentage suddenly became automatic. Wichita State went 29 of 31 at the stripe, a remarkable 93.5% performance, and every make felt like another tug on the rope — much to the chagrin of the pro-Tulsa crowd convinced the officials were conspiring against the home team.
Will Berg hit four straight free throws during a 6-0 run. Williams followed with a driving left-handed layup that sliced Tulsa’s lead to 64-60. The comeback was no longer theoretical. It was happening.
It was, in many ways, the perfect embodiment of one of Mills’ favorite sayings. His players, he says, are expected to fight every fight. They may not win every fight, but they have to fight them all.
On this night, the Shockers did.
They fought through the embarrassment of the opening minutes. They fought through the noise in the Reynolds Center. They fought through a 2-for-19 performance from 3-point range. They fought through a first half that could have broken lesser teams.
And with 7:21 left, they were finally rewarded.
Kenyon Giles jumped a passing lane and pushed the ball ahead to Karon Boyd for the tying basket, knotting the score at 66. Twenty-four points down earlier, Wichita State had completed the climb.
Then, moments later, Williams gave the Shockers their first lead of the game at 70-68 with 6:34 to play.
For a brief stretch, the impossible had become real. Wichita State wasn’t just alive. It was in control of its own escape.
But comebacks take so much energy, so much precision, that even the smallest mistakes in the closing minutes can undo all of it.
With WSU up one, Giles had a clean look from 3 — the kind of deep bomb he has delivered routinely in his record-breaking season — but missed a chance to put WSU ahead by two possessions. Barnstable was then fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws to put Tulsa back in front, 73-72. Boyd answered with two free throws to restore WSU’s lead at 74-73. Barnstable then made two more at the line for a 75-74 Tulsa advantage with 3:21 to play.
The margin was razor-thin and Tulsa made the next clean plays.
WSU failed to secure a defensive rebound, which gave Tulsa new life that Tylen Riley capitalized on with a driving bucket for a 77-74 lead with 1:46 left. Moments later, Tulsa’s Myles Rigsby poked the ball loose from Boyd and Barnstable raced ahead for a layup that stretched the lead to five.
Even then, the Shockers had one last push.
Gray was fouled behind the arc with 45.4 seconds remaining and calmly sank all three free throws to cut the deficit to 79-77. WSU then forced a miss and had a chance to get the ball back, down two, in the final seconds.
But the Shockers were unable to secure the defensive rebound after a peel switch that left 7-foot-2 center Will Berg contesting the shot and Gray, WSU’s 6-foot-1 point guard, wrestling with 6-foot-10 Tulsa center Tyler Behrend for the board.
One rebound and the Shockers would have had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead. Instead, they had to foul, and Riley iced the game by making all four of his free throws in the final 15 seconds.
There was no final possession. No miracle answer. No storybook finish.
Only the cruel silence that follows when a team has emptied everything it has and still walks away short.
“We went out fighting, that’s our identity,” Giles said. “It sucks, but we went out fighting.”
Williams led Wichita State with 19 points and eight rebounds, delivering the kind of fearless performance that gave the Shockers life. Battie added 17 points and seven rebounds. Giles, the offensive star who had carried Wichita State so often this season, finished with 12 points on 4-for-15 shooting. Tulsa got 45 combined points from Riley and Barnstable, and in the biggest moments late, that proved to be enough.
It was the fourth meeting of the season between the longtime rivals, the first time that had happened in a series stretching back nearly a century. WSU had beaten Tulsa two of the first three, but the Golden Hurricane won the one that ended everything.
And that is what will make this loss linger for Wichita State.
Not that the Shockers fell behind by 24. Not that they played poorly for one disastrous stretch early. But that they fought all the way back, matched history, took the lead and made themselves believe they were about to pull off something unforgettable.
Instead, they were left with a different kind of memory.
The grittiest effort of the season.
And its most heartbreaking ending.
This story was originally published March 24, 2026 at 8:30 PM.
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