Box Score WICHITA, Kan.- Sophomore Gal Mekel led all scorers with 16 points as the Shockers (1-0) held on for a 61-56 win over Arkansas?Pine Bluff (0-2) in their first regular-season game, Tuesday night inside Charles Koch Arena.

In his first regular-season game, redshirt freshman J.T. Durley hit two 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Nearly every Shocker player that scored was in double-figures with Phil Thomasson scoring nine while P.J. Couisnard, Ramon Clemente and Matt Braeuer each finished with eight.

Marcelle Goins came off of the bench to lead the Golden Lions with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Larry Williams and William Byrd finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

On a night that saw the beginning of the Gregg Marshall era, the Shockers executed perfectly right out of the gate as Braeuer hit Clemente coming off a screen for an easy layup and a quick 2-0 lead. Williams answered with a 3-pointer that put UAPB up 3-2, their only lead of the game.

Braeuer and Mekel hit 3-pointers while Braeuer found an open Couisnard down low for another point-blank layup as part of a 10-3 run in the game's first three minutes.

“I would say the first 10 minutes of the game I think we had six or seven layups,” Braeuer said. “It was unbelievable. That's what coach keeps preaching ? that if we run stuff right and we run it crisp, then we are going to get those type of shots.”

The Golden Lions connected from behind the arc each time it looked like WSU was poised to pull away. But with the lead cut to 24-20, Couisnard took a steal and sent a perfect fastbreak bounce pass cross-court to Braeuer, who layed it in while being fouled.

That play sparked a 9-0 run, highlighted by Durley's back-to-back 3-pointers, that gave WSU its biggest lead of the half, 33-20, with 3:45 to go. Goins fired back with two 3-pointers of his own to help cut the deficit to seven, 35-28, at halftime.

Goins connected three times from downtown as UAPB hit eight 3-pointers and connected just twice inside the arc in the first half. The Shockers shot 54 percent, including 50 percent from 3-point range.

WSU started the second half on fire as Thomasson fueled a 12-2 run with seven points to give the Shockers their biggest lead of the game, 47-30, with 15:42 remaining.

The UAPB offense came alive and kept the team in the game by knocking down jumper after jumper, including a 17-foot jumper by Jarvis Gunter that cut the deficit to four, 53-49, before Couisnard and Mekel connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 10 with 2:30 to play.

Another Goins 3-pointer cut the WSU lead to five, but Mekel iced the game with two free throws as the Shockers held on for the win.

“We gutted it out,” Marshall said. “They (UAPB) made a lot of shots and made it more interesting than we would have hoped. You have to give that credit to them. I thought they shot they ball extraordinarily well. They are a veteran club.”

The Shocker defense held UAPB to 42 percent shooting for the game and collected eight steals, led by four from Couisnard. Braeuer quarterbacked the offense with eight assists to just one turnover on the night.

“They were hitting some unbelievable shots that were contested,” Couisnard said. “When an opposing team plays in front of a lot of people like that, it brings out the best in them. I think the crowd got them amped up. I think they just hit some tough shots that were guarded really well.”

WSU now heads to the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas for a game with Baylor (1-0) on Fri., Nov. 16. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. CST and will be broadcast on KNSS 1330 AM.