Wichita State basketball swats Southern Illinois away to hold on for last-second win
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Rekindling an old Missouri Valley Conference rivalry didn’t disappoint in Southern Illinois’ return to Koch Arena for the first time since 2017.
Saturday’s game was decided in the final second, as a game-winning attempt by the Salukis was swatted at the rim to preserve a 69-68 win for Wichita State.
In front of a season-high 7,187 fans, the Shockers (8-3) snapped their two-game losing skid and collected their second victory of the season over a team ranked higher than them on KenPom (SIU moved to No. 108 following Saturday’s result, while WSU settled at No. 109).
“I don’t think people understand how much energy that provides and how much it helps,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said of the lively crowd. “It’s sometimes a huge intimidating factor because it’s difficult to make shots and run and execute plays when you can’t hear. I thought the crowd was phenomenal and kind of pushed us over the top tonight.”
How Shocker basketball pulled out the win
An 11-point-in-3-minute eruption from Colby Rogers down the stretch should have been enough for WSU to ease its way to victory, but the Salukis rattled off seven points in the final two minutes to trim WSU’s lead to 69-68.
WSU’s 19-4 advantage early in the game was a distant memory when Kenny Pohto saw both of his free throws swirl out with 18.9 seconds remaining to set up a final possession where SIU would have two attempts to win the game.
The first came immediately following Pohto’s second missed free throw, as Xavier Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer at 25 points per game, drove the lane and scooped a shot that fell off the rim but was rebounded by a teammate.
Following a SIU timeout with 6.0 seconds left, Johnson attacked the rim again and this time his scoop shot was sent backward by Ronnie DeGray III and then Quincy Ballard — a rare double-block that ensured a dramatic win.
“I looked up at the clock and just walled up,” said DeGray, who made his season debut for the Shockers. “I got a hand on it and Q cleaned it up.
“You can’t get anything better than that.”
Johnson, who scored 94 points in his three previous games, finished with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting against the Shockers and added nine assists and five turnovers in 40 minutes.
It was the second straight loss for SIU, which dropped to 6-4 this season.
“We wanted to give him as much space as possible,” SIU coach Bryan Mullins said. “We had the right side of the court wide open for him and we just wanted to allow X to make a basketball play. We got the ball where it needed to go and X is the guy we want taking that shot every time.”
What Wichita State did better against Southern Illinois
Mills said a lot of different factors went into the low energy the Shockers exhibited in a 10-point setback to South Dakota State downtown last weekend. He mentioned multiple players were grieving deaths in their family, it was finals week and starting guard Harlond Beverly played with a 101-degree temperature.
There was no repeat performance a week later, as WSU played some of its most-crisp basketball of the season in the first eight minutes of the game to build a 15-point lead by the second media timeout.
Mills has his coaching staff track “energy” points during games and after finishing with just 12 in the loss to the Jackrabbits, the Shockers produced 21 energy points by halftime against the Salukis.
“When we came back here on Monday (after the SDSU game), I knew I was looking at a team that was never going to let that happen again,” Mills said. “Nobody sat around and made excuses. Everybody owned their share of where they messed up. I was confident the energy would be there.”
But SIU, a top-30 3-point shooting team in the country, built momentum before halftime and methodically chipped away at the lead by spreading the Shockers out on defense and having Johnson pick them apart in space running the pick-and-roll game.
Not even an electric halftime performance from Red Panda could halt SIU’s surge, as the Salukis continued their push following the break and eventually took a 48-47 lead with 12:17 remaining.
That set up a scoring duel between Johnson and Rogers down the stretch of the game to decide it. It’s not often someone can outmatch the nation’s scoring leader, but Rogers showed off his firepower during a three-minute barrage where he drilled three straight 3-pointers and a mid-range jumper to flip the game for WSU and stake the Shockers to a 66-61 lead.
“He comes in early every single day and puts in the time and puts in the work,” said WSU teammate Xavier Bell, who matched Rogers with a team-high 20 points. “It’s really nothing new to us. Every single day you see it in practice. It’s just fun to watch when he gets it going and the crowd gets into it. We feed off of that energy.”
Stats to know from the WSU-SIU game
SIU out-shot WSU from the floor, 48.1% to 41.9%, but the Shockers made up for it with six fewer turnovers (just six in 61 possessions) and dominating the glass (WSU grabbed 15 offensive rebounds for a 22-10 advantage in second-chance points).
Kenny Pohto’s shooting woes continued with a 2-for-8 performance, but he grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, while Beverly chipped in eight points, four assists and three steals.
Following a rollercoaster week in court, DeGray was able to make his season debut on Saturday after sitting out the first 10 games while waiting on the NCAA’s word for a waiver as a two-time transfer. The 6-foot-6 junior forward, who will be able to play the rest of the season for WSU, finished with two points, four rebounds (all offensive) and an assist in 19 minutes off the bench.
“We came out with the right attitude tonight and got the job done,” Bell said. “We knew it was going to be a tough matchup with Xavier Johnson and their team as a whole. Our coaches got us prepared, making sure we knew personnel and we came out and executed our game plan to get the win.”
