TULSA, Okla. -- No. 5/5 Wichita State (14-2, 4-0 American) plays its second road game in three days Saturday at Tulsa (10-6, 3-1) in the first men's basketball installment of "Havoc in the Heartland."
 
Tipoff it set for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
 
The Shockers haven't lost in over a month. Thursday night they mowed down ECU, 95-60, for their sixth-straight win. Landry Shamet scored 11 points and dished out a career-high 11 assists against one turnover. The Shockers' 32 assists was their highest total in 11 seasons under Gregg Marshall.
 
This is the Shockers' first season in The American after a 72-year run in the Missouri Valley Conference, where they had won four-straight and five the last six regular season crowns.

 

GAME 17

Tulsa, Okla.

Donald W. Reynolds Center

Game Notes: WSU | TUL

MATCHUP

#5/5 Wichita State (14-2, 4-0 American) at Tulsa (10-7, 3-2 American)

Saturday, Jan. 13

6:30 P.M. CT

ESPNU (WatchESPN)

KEYN 103.7 FM

GoShockers.com

GoShockers.com

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STARTING FIVE:
 
1 --- REUNITED & IT FEELS SO GOOD: The WSU-Tulsa rivalry dates back 87 years. For half a century, the programs competed side-by-side in the MVC. Tulsa left the Valley in 1996 and bounced from the WAC to C-USA (2005) to The American (2014). Though the teams have met frequently as non-conference foes (14 times in 21 years), the oldest of the current Shockers -- Rauno Nurger -- was just 2 1/2 years old when they last played a conference game... WSU leads the all-time series, 65-61, and has won eight of the last nine.
 
2 --- START SEARCH: WSU (4-0 American) enters the day with a half-game lead over Cincinnati (3-0). WSU is the sixth team in the league's five seasons to start 4-0. Each of the five previous 4-0 teams went on to finish either first or second in the final standings.
 
3 --- ROAD WARRIORS: WSU (4-0 in true road games this year) is tied with Middle Tennessee for the nation's longest road winning streak (10)... Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Shockers own the most road wins (45-6) and highest road percentage (.882) in Division I. They've also been the decade's best road team at 71-14 (.835) since the start of the 2010-11 campaign.
 
4 --- LANDRY LIST: Sophomore point guard Landry Shamet made the cut Thursday for the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25. Shamet is the NCAA leader in three-point field goal percentage at 53.2 percent (players must average at least 2.5 threes per game to qualify for national rankings). He leads The American in assists (5.1), A:TO ratio (2.7) and three-pointers per game (2.6).
 
5 --- GREAT OUT OF THE GATE: WSU has led by 20+ points at halftime in each of its last three games against Houston (53-32), USF (51-20) and ECU (45-23)... The Shockers hit 10 first-half threes against Houston. A 75% (21-of-28) opening salvo against USF was WSU's highest halftime field goal percentage of the Marshall Era.
 
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THE SERIES WITH TULSA:
*The Shockers have won eight of the last nine meetings with Tulsa to take a 65-61 series lead.
*Throw out the 10 overtime games that the teams have played (where WSU holds a 7-3 edge) and the series is dead even (58-58).
*WSU and Tulsa played 14 non-conference games during the 21 years that they were separated. The Shockers went 8-6 in those matchups (with wins in eight of the last nine meetings). 
*After WSU's Charles Koch Arena renovation the balance of power shifted dramatically. On Dec. 20, 2003 (Koch Arena's inaugural season), the Shockers stopped a 13-game losing streak against Tulsa with a 66-58 victory. That started a run of seven-straight Shockers wins.
*The Shockers are 27-35 against the Hurricane in Tulsa but are 3-3 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center (now in its 20^th season of use).
*WSU is 5-1 in overtime games at Tulsa with four straight wins.
*Gregg Marshall is 6-1 against Tulsa (2-1 at the Reynolds Center). He's won three of his four head-to-head meetings with Frank Haith.
*Tulsa is 7-1 this season at the Reynolds Center (2-0 in American play). Since dropping their season opener against visiting Lamar (74-67), the Golden Hurricane have won seven-straight home games.
*Tulsa opened American play at 3-0 before losing back-to-back road games at Memphis and Houston. In the latter, UH set a league record with 18 threes (13 of them in the first half).
*Preseason all-conference selection Junior Etou ranks among the league's top-10 in scoring (7^th, 16.2) and rebounding (5^th, 6.9).
 
MATCHUP MASHUP:
Tulsa senior Corey Henderson Jr. was a freshman on WSU's 2015 Sweet 16 team, appearing 28 of the 35 contests while averaging 1.9 points per game… Henderson made his first visit to Charles Koch Arena in enemy colors last November. He finished with nine points (on 3-of-10 shooting), three assists and two steals in 28 minutes, but WSU triumphed 80-53… Both teams are playing on short rest. The Shockers flew directly from Greenville, N.C. to Tulsa on Friday. The Hurricane played in Houston on Thursday night.
 
LAST MEETING WITH TULSA (Nov. 16, 2016 in Wichita):
WSU used runs of 11-0 and 14-0 to build a 44-30 halftime advantage, and a 16-0 spurt midway through the second half served as the knockout punch… The 27-point win was WSU's most-lopsided over Tulsa since 1972 and WSU's third-largest in 126 meetings… Markis McDuffie scored nine of his 18 points at the foul line and cleared seven rebounds and four assists… Darral Willis Jr. (16 points) was 7-of-13 from the field with seven rebounds and a pair of steals… Zach Brown (15) went 3-of-4 from three and scored 11 second-half points.
Shaquille Morris battled foul trouble but scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in 10 minutes of action… For Tulsa, Pat Birt (17 points) and Junior Etou (six points and ateam-high nine rebounds) led the way. Former Shocker Corey Henderson added nine points, three assists and two steals… In winning for the eighth time in nine tries against Tulsa, WSU outrebounded the visitors by 52-30, including 30-12 in the first half. Shocker reserves accounted for 52 points -- one fewer than Tulsa's team total (53).
 
ON FIRE IN CONFERENCE PLAY:
WSU has put up some absurd three-point shooting numbers in its four American Athletic Conference games, averaging 11.3 per game with 47.9% accuracy… Nine Shockers have hit a three in conference play… On the conference-only leaderboard, WSU occupies five of the top-eight spots in three-point percentage.
 
HELPING HANDFUL:
WSU's 32 assists at ECU tied for the second-most in American history and -- to date -- is the highest total for a D-I road team this year. The Shockers have 60 assists over their last two outings and now rank in the top-5 nationally in assists-per-game.
 
NATIONAL LEADERS; ASSISTS-PER-GAME (as of 1/12):
Landry Shamet's point-assist double-double (11 & 11) at ECU was the league's first of the year. .. Shamet is the first Shocker to record double-digit assists in a game since Fred VanVleet finished with 11 in a Feb. 3, 2016 win over Southern Illinois… Shamet's 11 assists at ECU tied for the second-highest total by a Shocker in a true road game. Bill Lang had 11 at Oregon State on Dec. 1, 1972. Bob Trogele tallied 13 at DePaul on Dec. 10, 1977.
 
ON THE LEADERBOARD (as of 1/12)
Wichita State leads The American in scoring offense (85.8), field goal percentage (.496), three-point percentage (.413), rebound margin (+10.7), assists (19.4), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6), defensive rebound percentage (.770) and three-pointers per game (9.8)… Rashard Kelly leads the conference in offensive rebounds per game (3.5). He and Darral Willis Jr. are both among the league's top-10 in rebounding… Landry Shamet leads the league in assists (5.1), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7) and threes-per-game (2.6). He's second in three-point percentage (.532)… Shaquille Morris enters the weekend with 30 total blocks, tied with Tulane's Blake Paul for the league lead.
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD…  
… improve their record to 15-2 (4-0 American).
… maintain at least a half-game lead in the standings over Cincinnati.
… run their winning streak to a season-best seven-games with victories in 11 of the last 12.
… extend their road winning streak to 11 games.
… give them a 5-0 start to conference play for the fourth time in five years.
… extend their lead in the all-time series with Tulsa to 66-61 and make them 28-35 against the Hurricane in Tulsa.
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD… 
… drop their record to 14-3 (3-1 American).
… stop a six-game winning streak.
… snap a 10-game road winning streak.
… be their first on the road since Jan. 14, 2017 at Illinois State.
… be just their seventh true road loss in the last five seasons (45-7).
… be their first loss to a team that wasn't receiving AP votes since Mar. 5, 2016 (vs. UNI; MVC Tournament).
… shrink their all-time series lead against Tulsa to 65-62 and make them 27-36 in series road games.
… be less good than a win.
 
UP NEXT:
WSU plays three of its next four at home, beginning Jan. 17 against SMU (12-6, 2-3 American).