Wichita State basketball prevails in nail-biter at UAB to notch first road AAC win

Holding the ball as the final buzzer sounded, Colby Rogers finally allowed himself to drop the stoic act and flash a well-earned grin.

Overcoming a debilitating habit is rarely a smooth endeavor, but it sure is a rewarding one.

Wichita State’s 74-66 victory over UAB at Bartow Arena won’t be studied by basketball teams in search of a blueprint on how to protect a 19-point lead, but the Shockers finally broke their pattern of blowing second-half leads to collect their first road win in American Athletic Conference play.

And for Wednesday night, that was a worthy enough cause to celebrate.

“This proves to ourselves that (a turnaround) is not far-fetched or something that’s impossible,” Rogers said after scoring a career-high 29 points to upend a team that is vying for a top-4 finish in the conference. “It’s well within reach, but we’ve got to capitalize on this. We’ll celebrate it tonight, but tomorrow we have to learn from it and move on. But this shows we’re not that far away.”

A myriad of lessons can be learned by the Shockers (12-17, 4-12 AAC) from the tape of the second half.

The good: WSU took the fight to UAB on its home court coming out of halftime and opened up a 19-point lead with 11 minutes to go in the game.

The bad: WSU’s crippling turnover problem returned in the worst way possible, as the team finished with 18 of them — eight coming in a 16-possession stretch immediately following the moment WSU took a 19-point lead.

One by one, the empty possessions stacked up, robbing WSU of momentum and fueling a 23-5 run by UAB to inject confidence in the Blazers and their rowdy home crowd that a comeback was not only possible, but inevitable.

But as soon as UAB clawed to within 65-64 with 3 minutes, 17 seconds remaining, the improbable occurred. The Shockers, who have been on the wrong end of late-game plays the entire season on the road, suddenly started making the winning plays down the stretch.

It was WSU who came up with offensive rebounds and second-chance points, scored by Kenny Pohto and Ronnie DeGray III. It was WSU who came up with loose balls and six of the nine available rebounds down the stretch. It was WSU who made all three of its free throws, while its opponent who missed three straight at the line. And it was WSU who came up with a timely steal and its opponent who made the costly mistake.

After blowing halftime leads at Florida Atlantic (up 11), South Florida (up 3), Tulsa (up 11) and Memphis (up 6), the Shockers finally experienced the other side of a close game. Meanwhile, UAB (18-10, 10-5 AAC) lost its second straight home game.

“Sometimes you need to experience the things that lead to losing and you’ve got to go through it,” WSU coach Paul Mills said. “The reality of winning on the road is you have to experience failure and you’ve got to embrace those lessons and move forward. This group has done that.”

After thanking the group of WSU supporters who made the trek to Birmingham, Mills grabbed a water bottle, twisted the cap off and raced into the visitor’s locker room to spray his players and set off a celebration that had been two months in the making.

Junior guard Harlond Beverly (12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) said the win didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already believe about the team.

“I’ve always felt like we are a good team,” Beverly said. “I don’t feel like our record reflects our potential and how good we can be. Between the guys and the coach, we all still really believe we can make some noise in the (AAC) tournament and finish up strong here at the end of the season.”

It certainly makes a difference when the team’s leading scorer is on, as Rogers snapped out of a four-game shooting slump where he was making just 27% of his shots.

After the slump reached a new low last game when Rogers finished 2 of 14 from the field in a home loss to Temple, the Covington, Georgia native looked right back at home in a return to the South.

The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, including a buzzer-beating 3 just before halftime, in the first 20 minutes. He scored from all three levels and showed restraint when he was in the midst of his heater to not force shots up, which resulted in an efficient 29-point outing on 10-of-14 shooting. Rogers scored 12 of his team’s first 16 points, then added eight more by the first media timeout of the second half to increase his total to 27 in the first 26 minutes of the game.

Even with the 18 turnovers, WSU’s offense managed to pump out 1.10 points per possession with 50% shooting from the field and eight triples, which included five supplied by Rogers.

“We’ve lost a lot of close games this year, so you just have to put it in your mind that you’re not going to accept that and you’re not going to settle,” Rogers said. “You have to continue to fight for what you want. So in my mind, I just kept telling myself, ‘We are not going to lose this game. I’m not going to leave this court wishing I would have given more effort.’”