WICHITA, Kan.- Tekele Cotton scored a career-high 21 points and also had a career-high in steals with seven to lead the Wichita State men's basketball team past Drake 83-54 on Saturday night inside Charles Koch Arena.

Fred VanVleet and Darius Carter each added 15 points in the Shocker victory. 

The Shockers started the game on a 7-0 run. Ron Baker made the first basket of the game when he hit a three at the 18:16 mark. Chadrack Lufile later had a layup to push the early lead to 5-0, and then Tekele Cotton made a jumper.

Drake ended the Shockers' run by Trevor Berkeley making a three-point play. This cut the Shocker lead to 7-3 before Baker completed a three-point play of his own.

The Bulldogs used an 8-2 run to get within two points. A jumper by Aaron Hawley, a layup by Richard Carter and another jumper by Daddy Ugbede made the score 14-12 in favor of the Shockers with 10:56 left in the first half.

Cleanthony Early committed his second foul with 9:38 left in the first half. After a video review, Early's second foul became a flagrant one. Hawley made one of two technical free throw shots, and then hit a layup cutting to the basket, which gave the Bulldogs a 15-14 lead.

Darius Carter made a jumper to give the Shockers a 16-15 lead. However, on the next Drake possession, Baker also picked up his second foul of the first half. 

Wichita State used a 15-3 run to go up 31-18 going into halftime, capped off by a Nick Wiggins dunk and Fred VanVleet three.

The Shockers went 12-for-29 (.414) from the field, was just 2-for-15 (.133) from three and shot 5-of-8 (.625) from the free throw line. Drake went 6-for-21 (.286) from the field, 0-for-6 from three and 6-of-8 (.750) from the free throw line.

VanVleet led the Shockers with eight points, two rebounds and three assists. Darius Carter and Cotton each chipped in with six points of their own. Hawley had five points and two rebounds to lead Drake. 

A 14-1 run by the Shockers pushed their lead to 45-19 with 17:27 left in the game, including a thunderous dunk by Darius Carter.

Hawley made five points in a row to trim the Shocker lead to 47-23 with 14:22 left. Then, Cotton scored the next eight points for the Shockers, including two three's and a jumper. Wichita State took a 55-29 lead into the second media timeout of the second half.

Early didn't make his first basket of the game until the 8:58 mark in the game, making a layup that pushed the Shocker lead to 62-37.

Evan Wessel made two threes to push the Shocker lead to 80-50 with 1:29 left in the game. This was Wessel's second and third made threes of the season.

Wichita State, the out-right Missouri Valley Conference regular-season champions, will travel to Peoria, Ill. to take on Bradley on Tue., Feb. 25 at 8 p.m.