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WICHITA, Kan. – Zach Brown scored a career-high 16 points and provided four of Wichita State's 10 dunks in a 99-68 win over Missouri State, Thursday night at Charles Koch Arena.

WSU (20-7, 13-2 Missouri Valley Conference) continues to play well in the wake of Saturday's streak-breaking home loss to UNI with its second straight 30-plus point victory and can clinch at least a share of the MVC regular title on Sunday at Indiana State.
 
WSU reached 20-wins for the seventh-straight year, marking the second-longest streak in MVC history. Creighton owns the record (1998-2008).
 
The Shockers also notched their 12th-straight win over Missouri State (11-16, 7-8 MVC).
 
Brown scored 13 of his career-high 16 points before halftime and finished 7-of-11 from the field.
 
Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker finished with 15 points and five assists each. Baker also tacked on four rebounds and four steals.
 
Rashard Kelly matched his career-high with 12 points (half of them coming on three dunks of his own), and set new personal-bests in assists (4) and steals(3).
 
WSU's 10-dunk performance was fueled by run outs – helped by 13 steals from the defense – and alley-oops.
 
Helped by so many high-percentage looks, WSU finished the game at 59.1 percent from the field (39-of-66). They tallied 29 points off of 18 MSU turnovers.
 
WSU outscored the Bears in the paint, 50-32, and bench points, 46-14. In WSU's last two games they have outscored the opponent's bench, 78-18.
 
The Bears finished the game at 42 percent, but were only 3-of-14 from downtown.
 
Obediah Church led three MSU players in double-figures with 14 points and eight boards. Dequon Miller added 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Chris Kendrix chipped in 11.
 
Shaquille Morris slammed home a lob from VanVleet for the game's first points, and Brown added another off a feed from Anton Grady.
 
Following the first media timeout, the Shockers turned an 8-8 tie into a 17-8 lead.
 
A three-point play from Morris gave Wichita State its first double-digit lead at 25-14 and then another alley-oop, this time of the Baker and Brown variety, put the Shockers up 27-14 with eight minutes remaining to force a MSU timeout.
 
Nine-straight points from Brown extended the lead to 20 at the six-minute mark. Brown scored via the deep ball, a mid-range jumper and another slam.
 
Just before the final media timeout of the half, Kelly sent the crowd into a frenzy with a breakaway steal and one-hand slam. The first half nearly turned into a dunk contest for WSU, as the Shockers threw down seven before heading to the locker room with a comfortable 51-27 lead. Wichita State's 51 points in the first half marked a season high.
 
Brown caught an alley-oop from Baker, knocked down a three in transition, buried a jumper and finished with an another lob from VanVleet over a stretch of less than two-minutes to give WSU a commanding 36-16 lead.
 
Markis McDuffie's tip-dunk and two Kelly slams gave WSU seven dunks heading into the half. The Shockers added three more within the first four minutes of the second-half before going dunkless over the final 16 minutes.
 
MSU trimmed the halftime lead to 16 to open the second half, only to see WSU respond with a 13-2 run and three thunderous dunks by Kelly, Baker and Brown. The WSU run gave the Shockers their largest lead to that point, 66-39.
 
At the eight-minute mark of the second half WSU held a 77-54 lead after both teams had been trading baskets. Baker then connected on consecutive three-pointers to make the score 83-58 with just more than six minutes to go.
 
The lead reached 30 on a trey from Tyrone Taylor II with a minute remaining in the ballgame. John Robert Simon then got in on the action with a long ball on the Shockers' very next possession.
 
Up Next
The Shockers finish out their MVC road schedule with back-to-back games at Indiana State (Sunday, 3 p.m. CT, ESPNU) and at Loyola (next Wednesday, 8 p.m. CT, Cox Channel Kansas).
 
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GREGG MARSHALL ON...
 
…Playing aggressive on defense?
"We were trying to force deflections and we had 24 deflections at half, which was a season high. We enjoyed the fruits of the labor on that, you get easy baskets and runouts. I thought Zach Brown and Rashard Kelly were really running especially hard in transition, and of course Ron and Fred are going to find you when you do that."
 
…Brown's big night
"He's more assertive, but he's not out of control, and that's what you want. You want him to take wide-open shots and slash to the basket anytime he's there. He's a tremendous athlete who can really get up there and finish down on the rim so if that's there he needs to do it. He's been looking for that apparently, and I don't know why it's taken him this long."
 
…A foul-free Shaq Morris
"I thought Shaq was tremendous…I thought he was really good rebounding the first 25 minutes of the game, he looked really good. To play without fouling is tremendous for him and that's what we need him to do. We're going to need him to play more than he did tonight, but he would have played more tonight had the score not been the way it was."
 
…Underclassmen stepping up
It's good to see them being aggressive. I think the sophomores Brown and Kelly are starting to play their best basketball. Shaq has been pretty good for a while now, and Conner is coming along. That gives us more depth. It's not just the seniors…I think that sophomore class is showing that they are playing some pretty good basketball."
 
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RASHARD KELLY ON…
 
…on the fun of dunking
"It's fun but at the same time that's not what we're working for, we're not working to get breakaway dunks. It all starts on defense, and our defense turned into offense tonight. As a player and a fan of the game, I like to see everyone have an equal opportunity to showcase their talent and I think everyone did that tonight."
 
…Breaking MSU's zone defense ?
"The zone is not really about plays, it's attacking the open spots. I made basketball plays, honestly. I found the open man and found him cutting at the right time. When that happens, everybody starts making those types of plays."
 
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RON BAKER ON…
 
…Continuing to play hard, even as the game gets lopsided
"When you get in the game like that, you try and get into a rhythm. Tonight, scoring and getting into a three-quarter court press was just kind of our rhythm, and the game goes by pretty quick when you're out there. As a player, you just play as hard as you can, and sometimes the score -- you don't always realize how quickly it goes up."