WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State (13-2, 3-0) defeated Bradley (6-9, 1-2) by a score of 63-43 on Wednesday night inside Charles Koch Arena.

The Shockers had three in double figures. Darius Carter led the way with 19 points, Ron Baker had 12 and Shaquille Morris had 10 points. Carter and Morris also led the Shockers in rebounds with seven, while Rashard Kelly had five. VanVleet led the Shockers in assists with nine.

Wichita State shot 43 percent on 22-51 shooting while Bradley shot 35 percent on 16-46 shooting. The Shockers held the Braves to 18 percent shooting in the second half, including 0-7 from three.

Wichita State won the rebounding battle when they out-rebounded Bradley 41 -28, and won the assist battle 15-6.

Carter started off the scoring for WSU at the 19:11 mark with a layup to score the first points of the game. Ka'Darryl Bell then answered with a three to give the Braves an early 3-2 advantage. Josh Cunningham hit a jumper of his own to push the Bradley lead to 5-2 with 18:13 left in the first half, capping off a 5-0 Braves run.

Carter then made his second shot with 14:55 left in the first half to cut the Shocker deficit down to one, 5-4, at the first media timeout of the game. Corey Henderson hit a three to tie the game at seven at the 11:53 mark.

Tramique Sutherland gave the Braves the lead again by hitting a jumper near the free throw line, and Donte Thomas made a layup to push the Bradley lead to four, 11-7 with 10:59 left in the first half.

Tekele Cotton gave the Shockers their second lead of the game when he hit a floater to push the Wichita State a 15-14 advantage with 7:34 left in the first half.

Bradley used another quick 5-0 spurt when Bell hit another three and Nate Wells hit a jumper to give the Braves a 19-15 lead before VanVleet converted a three-point play to cut Wichita State's deficit to 19-18 at 5:35.

Baker hit two free throws to give Wichita State a 20-19 lead before Barnes gave the Braves a 21-20 lead at the 4:23 mark.

Two more lead changes took place after Baker hit a three to give the Shockers a 23-21 advantage, Sutherland hit a layup to tie and Shaquille Morris dunked to give the Shockers a 25-23 lead.

The Braves used their third 5-0 run of the half when Barnes hit a three and Sutherland hit a jumper to push the Braves' lead to 28-25 with 1:03 left in the first half. Two Carter free throws brought the Shockers to within one at the half.

At the end of the first half, Carter led the Shockers with six points and four rebounds. VanVleet and Baker each had five, while Morris had four. Barnes was the leading Bradley scorer with eight points while having five rebounds. Bell added six points of his own while grabbing two rebounds.

The Shockers shot 37 percent on 10-27 shooting in the first half while the Braves shot 50 percent on 12-24 shooting. While each team had 16 rebounds, Wichita State had nine assists to Bradley's six.

At the first media timeout of the second half, the Shockers held the Braves to one point from a Mike Shaw free throw with 18:23 left to push the Braves' lead to 29-28. Morris had his own 4-0 run when he dunked off of an alley-oop and made a jumper to give the Shockers a 31-29 lead at the 16:58 mark.

Neither team scored another point until the 13:05 mark when Xzavier Taylor hit a jumper near the paint to tie the game at 31.

Baker hit two threes in a row to push the Shocker advantage to 37-32 with 11:17 left, gaining their largest lead of the game. Cotton hit a layup to cap an 8-0 Shocker run that saw their lead expand to 39-32.

Carter converted a three-point play and made two free throws to give Wichita State their first double-digit lead, 44-34, with 9:39 left. Two more Carter free throws pushed the Shocker advantage to 46-34 with 8:48 left. At this point of the game, Wichita State had held Bradley to 1-14 shooting, including 0-5 from three, in the second half.

Bradley's second basket of the second half came at the 6:58 mark by Sutherland when he hit a layup to trim the Shocker lead to 49-36. A 7-0 run would later push the Shocker lead to 58-38 at the last media timeout of the game. Each team scored five more points to give the Shockers the 63-43 victory. 

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-WICHITA STATE-