What WSU basketball fans need to know about the Shockers’ 2-0 start with win over WKU
The Wichita State men’s basketball team overcame 19 turnovers to pull away in the second half for a 71-61 win over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Koch Arena on Thursday.
“A hard ride is better than a smooth walk and that was definitely a a hard ride,” WSU head coach Paul Mills said after the Shockers improved to 2-0 on the season.
Here is what WSU fans need to know about the latest Shocker victory.
1. Going big once again a success for the Shockers
The partnership between 6-foot-10 junior Kenny Pohto and 6-foot-11 junior Quincy Ballard is looking stronger by the game.
Pohto shook off a slow start to finish with his second straight double-double to begin the season, which included a game-high 16 points and season-high 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Ballard didn’t score as much (4 points) as he did in the season opener, but he arguably had a larger impact in his second career start with 10 rebounds, a career-high three assists and four blocks in a career-high 31 minutes played.
The biggest surprise of the performance was the deft passing touch of Ballard, who had three assists in 119 minutes in his three-year career before Thursday. The big man brought the crowd of 6,351 at Koch Arena to their feet when he caught a pass on a pick-and-roll and immediately flipped it to a cutting Dalen Ridgnal for a slam dunk.
The lone criticism of the big-man duo is WSU’s defensive rebounding was suspect at times. WKU missed all 21 of its 3-pointers, which created long rebounds, but the Shockers will surely be disappointed to give up 22 offensive rebounds and only board out at a 64% rate on the defensive end.
But that’s a small blip compared to the production WSU has received from Pohto and Ballard, who have combined for 39 points and 42 rebounds so far this season in the team’s 2-0 start.
2. Turnovers still putting a damper on the WSU offense
If you look at just WSU’s shooting percentage, an above-average 48.1% from the field, it would seem safe to assume the Shockers had an efficient night of offense in the win.
That wasn’t the case, however, as 19 turnovers, including 10 from its two primary ball-handlers, prevented the Shockers from even reaching average efficiency. WSU scored 0.96 points per possession in a 74-possession game, which included a staggering 25.7% turnover rate.
Credit is due to the aggressive style of defense employed by Steve Lutz, as WKU’s perimeter defenders pressured WSU’s ball-handlers into a litany of mistakes in the first half. The Shockers committed 11 turnovers, meaning 30% of their possessions ended without a shot, on their way to trailing 29-27 at halftime.
Xavier Bell (4 turnovers) and Harlond Beverly (6 turnovers) handle the ball the most for WSU and each struggled at times with WKU’s high-intensity pressure. Bell fell victim to over-dribbling in moments, while Beverly’s issues stemmed from his decision-making with a few too many of his one-handed skip passes being off-target.
When WSU opened up a 12-point lead with 6:31 remaining, turnovers from Ballard and Pohto brought WKU back to life with a 6-0 spurt to make it a two-possession ball game in the final five minutes. Bell was also pressured into a turnover late against WKU’s full-court trap.
Because WKU won the rebounding battle and limited its own turnovers to 7, the Hilltoppers attempted 27 more field goals than the Shockers and had an 18-5 advantage in points off turnovers — but all of that was negated by ice-cold shooting from deep.
3. WKU goes without a 3-pointer for first time since 1987
It’s not likely WSU will be a good 3-point shooting team this season, but the Hilltoppers won’t be worse than they were from beyond the arc on Thursday.
The Hilltoppers missed all 21 of their attempts from distance, an 0-for-21 performance that snapped a 1,335-game streak of at least one triple made in a game that dated back to 1987.
It was the first time a WSU opponent has had an 0-for performance on 3-pointers since Loyola Marymount went 0-for-5 beyond the arc in an 80-53 loss to the Shockers on Dec. 22, 2014, according to Sports Reference. The 21 misses was tied for the fifth-most misses in an 0-for performance beyond the arc by any team nationally since the 2010-11 season.
“I’ve coached for darn near 30 years and I’ve never gone 0-for-21 before,” WKU coach Steve Lutz said. “Was there some bad shots in there? Absolutely. There were some shots I wish we could have moved the ball more and got a better shot. But we have a lot of proven 3-point shooters on our team at the college level. They just didn’t have it tonight.
“Maybe it was the balls,” he joked. “Are you sure (WSU) doesn’t play with crazy balls here?”
Despite the ice-cold performance from deep, WKU managed to take a 2-point lead into halftime and push the Shockers throughout the 40 minutes. The Hilltoppers finished the game shooting 29.6% from the field — a nearly identical mark from their 28.6% shooting performance at Koch Arena in a 66-49 loss on Nov. 12, 2013.
“If we can hold another team to 0-for-21 from 3, that will be pretty impressive,” Mills said. “I did think we did a good job on their personnel. We made sure the right guys were shooting the shots and the other guys, who are supposed to shoot them, make it as difficult as possible and I thought we did that.”
Shocker star of the game
There were plenty of worthwhile candidates, but the contributions of Kenny Pohto felt the most meaningful. He scored 12 of his game-high 16 points in the second, when the Shockers made their rally to victory, and collected his second straight double-double of the season with 11 rebounds.
He had his lows, notably three missed free throws and three turnovers, but no player was flawless Thursday.
Also worth mentioning was the all-around game of Quincy Ballard (4 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks) and the energy off the bench from Dalen Ridgnal, who played through a minor back injury to grab a season-high 13 rebounds and scored seven points in 23 minutes.
The game turned when...
After a brutal first 20 minutes, WSU came out with an adjusted strategy and better energy on offense to begin the second half on a 7-0 run and force WKU to burn a timeout within the first three minutes.
The aggressive trapping defense by the Hilltoppers pushed WSU out of its comfort zone in the first half, so WSU coach Paul Mills made the adjustment to go away from the ball screens, spread the floor and trust his guards to handle the pressure and get downhill.
Kenny Pohto sparked the 7-0 spurt with his corner 3-pointer, which was followed by a drive and dish from Harlond Beverly to Quincy Ballard for a dunk and another Pohto basket. The run took WSU from down 2 points to up 5 points, 34-29, right away in the second half and staked the Shockers to a lead they never surrendered.
What’s next for Wichita State basketball
The Shockers will play their third game in the opening week of the season in a 1 p.m. Sunday showdown at Koch Arena against Friends University. The game will count as a regular-season game for WSU and an exhibition for the NAIA Falcons.
