Wichita State women hold off Evansville

Eight possessions was all it took to change Sunday’s game against Evansville for the Wichita State women’s basketball team.

In those eight possessions, the final ones of the first half, Wichita State made six straight shots and an offense that badly needed to see the ball go through the net found the confidence it needed for a 58-50 victory over Evansville.

After an 0-6 start in conference play, Wichita State (5-14, 2-6 MVC) has now won back-to-back Missouri Valley games and pushed Evansville (2-16, 1-6 MVC) to the bottom of the league standings.

“It’s all beginning to come to reality,” WSU coach Jody Adams said. “Everything we talked about as coaches, everything we’ve told them about. Now they’re playing for each other and having fun and I think that’s what brought the success and the changes to this team.”

More fun would have been had without the 20 turnovers Wichita State committed to allow Evansville to linger until the final quarter. But every time the Shockers needed a bailout, Rangie Bessard was there to deliver.

Bessard registered her fourth game of 20 or more points in just her 13th game as a Shocker, scoring a game-high 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting to go along with a game-high seven rebounds.

“I saw a presence in the paint and somebody that wanted the ball in the gaps,” Adams said. “I saw someone willing to put somebody on their back and be aggressive and score in multiple ways. I think she showed all the different layers of her game today.”

Evansville trimmed Wichita State’s lead to a single possession three different times in the second half and all three times Bessard immediately answered back. Whether it was a back-to-the-basket post move, an elbow jumper against Evansville’s zone, or a three-pointer, Bessard found a way to ensure the Shockers maintained their lead.

“They’ve begun to accept a monster coming at them, which is a run by another team, and how to handle that,” Adams said.

In fact, Bessard scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter for Wichita State to stave off Evansville’s final rally. Her corner three-pointer with 1:50 to go gave WSU a 52-45 lead that it successfully protected.

“Day-by-day I’m learning how to be a better competitor,” Bessard said. “I’m learning how to stay aggressive and not take plays off. In times like those, you can’t take plays off when you’re a go-to player. Everything has to be aggressive.”

Wichita State found that aggression with its rally to close the first half. Down 20-12 halfway through the second quarter, WSU appeared destined for another stagnant performance against a zone defense.

In eight possessions, WSU turned its game around by scoring on six of them to reel off a 15-4 run that changed the complexion of the game.

Bessard scored six of those points during the run, but the exclamation point came from Aundra Stovall, who drained a three-pointer as time expired in the first half to turn an 8-point deficit into a halftime lead.

The key to it all?

“You just have to stay aggressive,” Stovall said. “Really you have to get mad to the point where you say, ‘if I shoot it, then I’m going to make this shot.’”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Wichita State women hold off Evansville."