Box Score |
Box Score (PDF)LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – No. 20 Wichita State suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in two-and-a-half years, falling 64-60 to Alabama Friday afternoon at HP Field House in consolation bracket action at the AdvoCare Invitational.
Ron Baker scored a team-high 15 points, and
Markis McDuffie followed up Thursday's breakout performance with another 14 points to go with seven rebounds.
McDuffie and Tom "Bush" Wamukota shared leading rebounder honors with seven-each, and freshman point guard
Ty Taylor II dished out a career-high six assists without a turnover in 30 minutes of action to go with eight points.
WSU (2-3) fell below the .500 mark for the first time since Feb. 18, 2009 (a span of just over six years and 9 months or exactly 2,473 days) when a loss at Illinois State dropped them to 13-14. They rallied to win their next two and remained at .500 or better the rest of the season.
The Shockers will face the loser of Iowa and #17 Notre Dame in Sunday's seventh-place game at 10:00 a.m. ET/9:00 a.m. CT on ESPN3.
Shannon Hale paced Alabama (3-2) with 20 points, Riley Norris added 12, and Dazon Ingram put up 11 points and eight rebounds.
The Shockers outrebounded Alabama 41-30 and collected 19 offensive rebounds, leading to 19 extra field goal tries. They failed to capitalize, going 19-of-61 (.311) from the field, including 10-of-30 from three-point range.
The Crimson Tide denied the Shockers access to the basket, limiting them to just 10 points in the paint – none in the second half.
Alabama finished at 40.5 percent and was a chilly 5-of-20 from deep but made it to the line 33 times and converted 25 free throws (.758).
The Shockers were outscored 32-30 in both halves.
Back-to-back threes by McDuffie and Baker capped a 6-0 run and gave WSU its final lead of the day at 55-52 with 8:11 to go.
Alabama answered with a couple of threes on the other end from Hale and Norris for a 58-55 edge at the 4:57-mark.
The Tide pushed the advantage to 61-56 with 3:35 left. WSU bounced back with help from a Wessel trey and a Baker free throw to pull within 61-60 with 1:03 showing, but the Shockers came up empty on each of their next two trips.
Alabama padded the lead by hitting three of four free throws.
Forward Anton Grady left the game with 3:07 remaining following an apparent collision in front of the Shocker bench. Grady was taken off the court on a stretcher and transported to a local trauma center for evaluation. He was alert and responsive to questions on the ride over. WSU will provide further updates on his condition. -Wichita State-
POSTGAME QUOTES:Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall"Disappointing. I thought we had a chance again, we had a lead midway through the second half. We didn't finish. It's been the same story in all three of our losses, so it's becoming a theme."
On it being difficult to get into offense"Well, not difficult to get in the offense – to score in the offense. We've got too many guys who can't make a play or make a basket on the floor right now. And the ones that can, other than Ron (Baker), are young and make mistakes elsewhere. They're talented enough to make a couple baskets, but there's too many mistakes. Too many non-playmakers, non-shot-makers, and too many mistakes."
G Ron BakerOn Anton Grady"Just seeing your brother on the court like that, obviously it's more than the game at the point. It's life. So, it's frightening. It's hard to focus on the game itself. Knowing that Fred (VanVleet) and Landry (Shamet) are out, then you see him go down, it was a blow to me. I'm just very thankful, makes me appreciate that I'm walking off the court. Things like that are what I think about – scary plays like that happening in the game of basketball."
Alabama head coach Avery Johnson"That was our first win over a ranked opponent in, I think, 22 tries – 21 tries. And our first time we've beat a ranked opponent, nonconference, since 2001. You've got to give our guys a lot of credit. This is what you call a team victory. When we're in the situation when we get three, four or five guys – a minimum of three guys – in double figures, we're a much better team. Another terrific defensive effort today, just like yesterday, but the difference was we played a little bit better offense."
"As I say, with our team on and off the court, everything's an evaluation. So it all started with this morning. I changed our workout this morning. We allowed them to sleep longer, we had a little bit of a longer walk-through in the ballroom. We ate later. We came over here a little bit later. Our warmup on the court was different, and our halfcourt warmup on the court … we went out earlier, and we just changed our routine a little bit. Because these 12 noon games, we haven't really executed and had the mental and the physical toughness, in the second half especially. And especially offensively."
On Fred VanVleet's absence"We saw him out there warming up a little bit before the game, so my heart started beating faster. He would make a difference, but at the same time, you look at how hard they play.
Ron Baker is very capable of single-handedly winning games for them. So he was a major priority for us coming into the game, also trying to defend the 3-point line."
On WSU forward Anton Grady going down"Our prayers go out to
Anton Grady. He had a tough fall during the game, I'm not exactly sure what happened, I haven't seen the replay. But our prayers go out to him and his family. In the midst of winning this game, most of our focus – even through the celebration of this win – is on his health. That could have been any one of my players out there in that situation, it could have been any of our children. So, we're really praying for him. And we hope whatever his situation is that he would have a speedy recovery."
G Riley NorrisOn pushing the ball offensively"That's how we run our offense, pushing the ball, getting easy shots, easy layups, which leads to opening up from the outside. I thought we pushed the ball well, Dazon (Ingram), Justin (Coleman) orchestrated the offense really well today and got us the easy shots, and we were able to score more."
"We played well; I thank my teammates. I wouldn't be able to get the open shots I got today without them making plays for me so it's easy for me just to spot up and knock down the shot."
