DES MOINES, Iowa - Great shooting and balanced scoring helped propel the Wichita State Shockers to a road victory over the Drake Bulldogs, 68-54 on Saturday night at the Knapp Center.

Wichita State (15-3, 6-1) moved to a half game back in the Missouri Valley standings behind Missouri State, who will take on Bradley tomorrow night.  With the defeat Drake is now 7-11, 2-5 overall.

Aaron Ellis led the Shockers with 12 points and added seven rebounds.  Demetric Williams came off the bench to score 11 points and David Kyles added ten points off the bench as well.  WSU was 27-of-52 (51.9%) from the field overall.

The Shockers jumped out to an early 11-4 lead to start the game after Graham Hatch buried a three-pointer.  It was the largest lead of the first half for WSU.  Both teams tightened up and the score was close throughout the half.  A jumper by Ellis and a layup by Williams in the closing seconds pushed the Shockers lead to 32-27 going into the break.

Ellis led Wichita State in scoring in the first half with eight points and added a team-high five rebounds.  Wichita State shot 14-of-26 (53.8%) in the first half and outrebounded the Bulldogs 21-11.

Ryan Wedel, a native of Minneapolis, Kansas paced the Bulldogs with seven points and freshman Rayvonte Rice added six points in the first half.  Rice was the leading scorer for the Bulldogs with 11 points for the game.

Drake started the second half on an 7-3 run to cut the Shox lead to 35-34 but the Shockers answered with a 10-0 run behind two three pointers by Williams, a lay-up by Ben Smith and a Gabe Blair lay-up to take a 45-34 lead.  Wichita State was never threatened again and had the lead up to 20 points at one point in the second half.

WSU outscored Drake 28-24 in the paint and outrebounded the Dogs, 45-20. 

Both teams battled free throw problems with Wichita State hitting 10-of 20 and Drake 7-of-13 in the game.

The Shockers next game is at home against the University of Northern Iowa on Wednesday, January 19.  Tip off is set for 7:05 p.m. and you can watch it on MVC-TV.

-WICHITA STATE-