WICHITA, Kan. --   Wichita State  defeated ULM, 57-42, in its opening game of the 2014 Winter Classic in front of 1,467 fans inside Charles Koch Arena.

Michaela Dapprich, Alie Decker and Jamillah Bonner led the Shockers with 16, 14 and 11 points each, while Decker was also the team's leading rebounder with seven. Three ULM players had eight points each in Sharnice Brooks, Jade Wharton and Chelsea Tieuel,

WSU out-shot ULM, 41.3 percent (19-46) to 33.3 percent (16-48) on the night, but were out-boarded by eight, 36-28. In addition, despite a 16 point lead at the half, WSU allowed 28 second half points to the Shockers' own 27.

ULM out-scored WSU 16-11 to open the second half, cutting the WSU lead to nine at the 11:23 mark on a layup by Tieuel. 

WSU extended the lead to 15 again, but ULM answered and cut it to 10, but couldn't get it under double-figures as Bonner extended it to 12 with a jumper at 5:06.

Decker made her fourth trey at 2:57 for a 13-point Shocker lead, 52-39. WSU out-scored ULM 8-6 over the final five minutes to fashion the final score, 57-42. 

WSU opened the game on a 7-0 run before ULM got on the board  at the 15:42 mark. The Shockers extended the lead to 15-2 on a Decker trey to force a ULM timeout at 12:24.

Another Decker three made it 18-4 at the 10:46 mark, and a Bonner three made it 20-6 at 9:46. 

A Dapprich jumper at 9:09 increased the lead to 14, 22-8, before Decker made another three at 7:36, her third of the game.

The Shockers held ULM scoreless for the next four minutes and increased the lead to 29-10 before back-to-back ULM baskets by Brooks cut the lead to 15 at 29-14.

WSU went into the halftime locker room with a 16-point lead, 30-14.

In the first half, Michaela Dapprich led WSU scoring with 10 points, while three players had four points for ULM. The Shockers held ULM to 27.3 percent shooting (6-22), and shot 39.3 percent (11-28) in the first frame.

Earlier in the day, George Mason defeated Winthrop, 69-57, in the 4 p.m., game of the Classic, and will play ULM in the noon game Saturday

Wichita State will play Winthrop at 3 p.m., Saturday, in the last game of the tournament, which was scheduled in advance.