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Postgame InterviewWICHITA, Kan. – Keyed once again by its defense, Wichita State finished out an emphatic statement week with a 67-50 win over No. 25 Utah, Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 15,004 at INTRUST Bank Arena.
In consecutive games, WSU (5-4) finally looked the part of a preseason top-10 team, holding UNLV and Utah – teams that came in averaging over 80-points per contest – to 50 each.
Three days after forcing 19 UNLV turnovers, the Shockers scored 25 points off of 19 Utah miscues. The Utes turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, allowing the Shockers to build a 33-20 halftime lead.
A WSU team that came into the day ranked 11th nationally in turnover margin added to its cache, with just three giveaways (two of them on VanVleet charging fouls).
Zach Brown matched his career-high with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and
Markis McDuffie drilled 4-of-5 three-point attempts on his way 13.
Since the return of All-American point guard
Fred VanVleet last Saturday, WSU has held its last three opponents to 53, 50 and 50 points respectively and forced an average of 18.3 turnovers.
VanVleet collected 10 points and six assists and – early in the game - became the 37th Shocker to reach 1,100 career points.
Ron Baker chipped in seven points, five assists and four steals.
WSU's three-headed monster (centers
Shaquille Morris,
Rauno Nurger and Bush Wamukota) kept another highly regarded seven-footer in check, limiting Jakob Poeltl to a season-low 11 points with four turnovers.
WSU improved to 6-0 all-time at INTRUST Bank Arena, adding Utah to a list of previous wins that includes Tulsa, UAB, Southern Miss, Tennessee and Saint Louis.
Stymied by turnovers, Utah (7-2) only attempted 34 field goals in the game, converting on 14 for a field goal percentage of 41 percent. WSU finished 26-of-59 (44 percent) from the floor, including 10-for-25 from beyond the arc. The Shockers bested Utah in bench scoring (28-13), points in the paint (28-12) and points off of turnovers (25-0).
After trailing by 13 at the half, Utah clawed back to within four just more than five minutes into the second half. Wichita State would immediately answer with a 6-0 run to go back up 10, coming on the heels of a four-point play by McDuffie.
With less than eight minutes remaining a strong drive and finish from VanVleet capped off an 8-0 run to put WSU up 53-38. From there, the Shockers never looked back. WSU led by as many as 20 points in the game and never allowed Utah to find a rhythm.
Out of the first media timeout with the score tied 5-5, the Shockers scored eight straight points behind a pair of three-pointers from Evan
Wessel to take an early 13-5 lead. A steal and slam from Brown at the nine-minute mark got the crowd on its feet after both teams went through a brief scoring drought.
Ron
Baker rattled off seven straight points, his only points in the game, for WSU on a three-pointer, reverse layup and floater in the lane to give the Shockers a 25-15 lead with just under seven minutes left in the half. McDuffie knocked down Wichita State's seventh three-pointer of the half to give the Shockers their largest lead to that point, 31-19, at the four-minute mark. The lead would get to 14 following an offensive rebound and putback by Rashard
Kelly.
At the half, WSU led 33-20 behind its defense that forced 12 Utah turnovers and holding the Utes to only 38 percent shooting from the floor. The Shockers shot 41 percent from the field overall, while knocking down 7-of-16 three-point attempts. Baker and Brown led WSU with seven points each, while Wessel and McDuffie added six apiece.
Poeltl led Utah with five points and five rebounds at the break. The Utes outrebounded Wichita State, 17-12, in the first 20 minutes.
The Shockers next travel to the East Coast for a matchup with Seton Hall on Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Tipoff is slated for 11 a.m. CST on FOX.
POSTGAME QUOTES:
FRESHMAN MARKIS McDUFFIE ON...…His play and confidence in a big-game atmosphere"We got our starting point guard back…but along with that I wanted to (help the team) come together. My teammates have my back through tough times…but at the end of the day I got to have confidence in myself. Things are starting to turn around.
I love the crowd and the hype. Once the crowd gets to me, I never want to stop."
…His four-point play"To be honest, I thought it was a bad shot. Considering I'd made the last two, I thought I'd go for it. I fell down, and when it went in it was hard for me to believe. I'm pretty sure it was the first four-point play I've ever made in my life. When I got up and I saw the crowd going crazy, I just got hyped and my teammates came after me."
HEAD COACH GREGG MARSHALL ON…. A big win over No. 25 Utah… "Very excited about the win. I mean that's a quality, top-25 basketball team, and I thought we played very well today against a tremendous, well-coached team, and a lot of superior athletes and size."
"We're starting to round into shape and be the team that we thought we could be and we're still not whole. Hopefully we get Anton back at some point and later in the year we will have a decision to make with Landry."
Fred VanVleet and Connor Frankamp have helped solidify our rotation and I thought our three-headed monster of Shaq Morris,
Rauno Nurger, and Tom "Bush" Wamukota did a wonderful job on Poeltl today."
On sweeping two difficult games this week against UNLV and Utah… "This was a week of redemption and revival, and that is what we talked about. We had a tough stretch there when we were basically playing, Ron, Fred, and the second team and we just needed some quality wins."
"These will be quality wins in the end and to get them by being so tough and gritty and determined on the defensive end."
On denying star big man Jakob Poeltl… "Not only were we denying him, but we were turning him over. I mean, we turned them (Utah) over 19 times. They got 34 shots to our 59, that is a pretty big stat."
"I don't know what his (Poeltl) season low is, but he's a great players. They (Utah) do a wonderful job of getting him the basketball in opportune spaces and where he wants it and when he wants it."
"Our guys were working extremely hard to limit his touches.
On Zach Brown's impressive play of late… "Brown is becoming the player that we knew he could be. He was struggling and letting his offense dictate how he was playing. If the jump-shot wasn't going in, which it wasn't in the first four or five games, he really wasn't giving us much."
"Now he is letting his energy and his defense get in clock, so then he can display a more confident, more under control offensive game."
On his defense flipping a switch over the past three games… "I don't know, maybe having your backs against the wall, maybe having people already write you off for the NCAA Tournament."
"At some point you have to say, ok, we were banged up, we didn't play well and we need to play well."
On the increasingly dangerous duo of Brown and Markis McDuffie… "Between them, they go for 27 points, 9-for-13 from the field, and 5-for-6 from the three-point line. I've got to find more positions for them to play I guess."
On the INTRUST Bank Arena atmosophere… "Great crowd tonight, 15,000 sellout. Thanks Russell, thanks Intrust Bank Arena, and thanks to our administration. I mean, now when we come down here, the first couple of years we'd come down and we would play on this plain court and there was no indication that we were in Wichita. Now they actually make it look like a home game."
"It's fun to play here, the players really enjoy it and we appreciate the opportunity."
SENIOR FRED VANVLEET ON...…The defense in the last two games"We're just getting back to what we [normally] do, getting back to who we are…this is a
Gregg Marshall type of team. I think we've been playing that way the last three games against St. Louis, UNLV, and again today. Holding Utah to 50 when they average 80-plus; so two games in a row of holding two 80-point teams to (around) 50… We're going to keep practicing and keep building each day.
Aside from us having a 15-3 asist-to-turnover [ratio], [defending Jakob Poeltl successfully] was probably the biggest key for us. He's averaging 21 [points] and 10 [rebounds] a game…he's a heck of a player and our guys stepped up to the task today."
…The team's current mindset"It was a good vibe and a good day. We're probably the most exciting 5-4 team in the country. We're just getting back to the way that we play, and we're doing that in the right way…Obviously Utah beat us last year, so this is kind of a little redemption and revival as far as bouncing back from Orlando…As long as we keep making steps in the right direction, we'll be fine."
SOPHOMORE ZACH BROWN ON...…Comparing the recent defense to the defense at the start of the season
"Our mindset and aggressiveness…really having that 'junkyard dog' mentality: when you see a junkyard dog, you know that dog's mean and you don't want to mess with that dog. You want to stay away from it. That's the kind of mindset that we got to have coming into every single game."
-Wichita State-
