WICHITA, Kan.- Darius Carter scored a career-high 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting to lead the Wichita State men's basketball team past Southern Illinois 67-55 on Wednesday night inside Charles Koch Arena.

Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton each scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively and each also contributed five assists.

Baker connected on a lay-in and Cotton hit a pull-up jumper to get the offense rolling for Wichita State in the early going. Cotton added another bucket with a runner in the lane, and a Carter dunk forced a Southern Illinois timeout, as the Shockers jumped out to an 8-0 lead. Southern Illinois didn't hit its first bucket until the 15:56 mark, and the Shocker crowd stood for the first four minutes of the contest.

Fred VanVleet hit a long two-point jumper as the shot clock wound down at the 11:30 mark, and a minute later; a drive and layup from Carter put the score at 21-8 Shockers.

Southern Illinois got back into the game, rattling off seven consecutive points to cut the Wichita State lead to 27-18 with less than four minutes to go in the half. Carter ended the Saluki run with dunk to put the Shockers back ahead double digits, 29-18.

Baker hit his first three of the game at the 1:24 mark and Carter lay-in off a pass from Baker gave Wichita State its biggest lead of the half, 36-20.

The Shockers closed the half on a 9-2 run and took a 38-22 lead into the locker room. Wichita State shot 13-for-20 (.650) from the floor in the first half and held the Salukis to 8-of-26 (.308). Carter led all scorers with 17 points while shooting 7-of-10 from the field. Tekele Cotton added nine points and three first-half rebounds.

Southern Illinois went on 6-0 run early in the second half to once again cut into the Wichita State lead, 46-35. Rashard Kelly's layup ended the Saluki run to give the Shockers a 48-35 advantage with 14:16 remaining in the game.

Zach Brown put himself on the scoreboard with a steal and dunk at the 10:35 mark that saw Wichita State push the lead to 53-38.

The teams traded buckets over the next six minutes and Bush Wamukota connected on a layup off a dish from VanVleet and Baker used a driving layup to put his team up 64-49 with a little more than three minutes remaining.

John Robert Simon's jumper in the lane at the 1:04 mark made the score 67-51 Wichita State, as the Shockers went on to win, 67-55.

Wichita State shot 24-for-58 (.500) for the game and held Southern Illinois to 22-of-56 (.393) from the floor. The Shockers outscored the Salukis 34-22 in the paint and forced 11 turnovers.

The Shockers will now head to Evansville, Ind. for a game against Evansville on Sat. Jan. 17. The game is set to tip at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on MVC TV.

Purchase all your Shocker merchandise at the official Wichita State Team Store.

-WICHITA STATE-