Shocker report (Dec. 12)

Saturday’s box score

Feels like home

Wichita State played in front of its second straight sellout crowd (15,004) at Intrust Bank Arena and played its first ranked opponent in the six seasons of downtown games.

Coach Gregg Marshall noticed the little touches, applied by WSU’s marketing and facilities crews, that add to the atmosphere.

“Great crowd,” he said. “The first couple years we’d come down and play on this plain court and there was no indication we were even in Wichita. Now they actually make it look like a home game. They’ve got the Shocker in the middle of the court. They’ve got Wichita State on the baselines. We’ve got a beautiful logo in our locker room now. I don’t know what they do with that, maybe we need to take it back to Koch Arena.”

Numbers game for the bigs

Wichita State’s three centers combined for 10 points, four rebounds and one blocked shot. Those numbers don’t represent the defensive contributions of Shaq Morris, Rauno Nurger and Bush Wamukota.

They teamed up to make life tough for Utah’s Jakob Poeltl, who took only five shots and scored 11 points. Entering the game, he averaged 11.3 shots and 21.3 rebounds.

“They do a wonderful job getting him the ball,” Marshall said. “Our guys were working extremely hard to limit his touches. We were sending the kitchen sink at him to try to dig it out.”

Morris set a tone early by denying Poeltl the ball and the rest of the big men followed.

“That was probably the biggest key to the game,” WSU guard Fred VanVleet said. “He’s a heck of a player and our guys stepped up to the task. We needed them. We challenged them.”

Shooting numbers

Guard Conner Frankamp made his first shot as a Shocker with 54 seconds to play to give WSU a 64-44 lead. The soldout crowd cheered like the basket mattered, which shows how much fans want him to succeed.

After missing all five shots against UNLV on Wednesday and four more on Saturday, he finished the game with two baskets, one a three-pointer with 15 seconds to play.

“I had a friendly wager with one of my buddies that he would make his first … at Intrust Bank Arena,” Marshall said. “He had to wait until 30 seconds to go in the game to keep me on edge.”

Marshall tried to get Frankamp rolling when he sent him to the line for two technical foul shots in the second half. He missed both.

“Hopefully, he’s going to get going now, because he can score them in bunches,” Marshall said.

At halftime, VanVleet walked with him toward the locker room and offered encouragement.

“All 15,000 people in the building could see he was having a tough time,” VanVleet said. “He’s making it pretty obvious that he’s thinking, over-thinking. Just play. Whatever happens, we’ve got his play. He’ll bounce out of it pretty soon. He’s a big-time player and he’s just got to respond.”

Worth noting

WSU improved to 6-1 against Associated Press ranked teams in home games under Marshall and 11-11 in all games.… Utah leads the series 7-2. The Shockers snapped a three-game losing streak to the Utes, winning for the first time since a 100-92 decision inn 1968 in Wichita.… VanVleet won his 99th game at WSU, moving him into third on the school’s career list. He is behind Tekele Cotton (120) and Demetric Williams (107). Ron Baker’s four steals moved him into sole possession of ninth on the career list with 124, two behind eighth-place Cheese Johnson. Baker’s three-pointer gives him 198 for his career, in sole possession of third and two behind second-place Sean Ogirri..… WSU’s 10 three-pointers match a season high. It made 40 percent of its threes, surpassing its previous high of 33.3 percent against an NCAA Division I team.

Paul Suellentrop

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Shocker report (Dec. 12) ."