The RoundHouse | 11/27/2018 9:24:00 PM

The offensive rebound is basketball's most demoralizing – or uplifting – play. The defense does its job and the reward for its work is bouncing off the rim. When all that goes bad and the shot clock resets for 30 more seconds, it's a blow to the mind and the legs.
 
When it happens over and over again – say 20 times – that's tough to overcome. Wichita State coach Keitha Adams had to watch that in Tuesday's 60-47 loss to Oklahoma State at Koch Arena and grew more and more frustrated. The Shockers are young – 10 newcomers – but Adams doesn't want to use her roster as an excuse.
 
"We hustle and we play hard on defense – we're just not a very physical team," she said. "We'll hustle. But in terms of rebounding and boxing out – we don't."
 
Oklahoma State scored 15 second-chance points off those 20 offensive rebounds – and there were plenty of rebounds after both teams shot under 40 percent. Adams saw a chance to put an exclamation point on a strong November slip away as the Cowgirls repeatedly hustled past the Shockers to grab offensive rebounds.
 
"The biggest thing was just being physical," Wichita State forward Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage said. "Our rebounding is what killed us. That's what we're going to be working on."
 
Like most coaches, Adams sees rebounding as an essential piece of a team's character. Tough teams rebound. Tough teams prove they're tough by rebounding. She promised plenty of rebounding drills and a good number of sprints to reinforce the importance beating the opponent to missed shots.
 
"The reason I'm upset is – 'You've got a choice to make, either you box this player or you let them box you out,'" she said. "And right now, we're letting them hit us and box instead of us doing it. We'll get better on that, I guarantee you."
 
The Shockers (5-2) trailed 9-7 after an ugly first quarter and 29-23 at halftime. The game slipped away in the third quarter when Oklahoma State (5-0) made three three-pointers – one after an offensive rebound and one after a turnover and built its lead to 47-34. Wichita State cut the lead to six in the fourth quarter with 7:22 remaining, but got no closer.
 
Tuesday's performance stung after Saturday's win over Louisiana Tech. The Shockers shot 38.5 percent from the floor, missed 9 of 13 foul shots and committed 17 turnovers. Oklahoma State's size and physical play gave the Shockers fits and sophomore Braxtin Miller scored 30 points.
 
Shocker freshman guard Dawnyel Lair contributed a third straight strong effort – 15 points, three steals and two assists in 27 minutes, 24 seconds. No other Shocker reached double figures.
 
"We had a Big 12 team on our home court," Adams said. "It's really a lost opportunity. That game was a winnable game for us. But, in some ways, we didn't deserve to win the game. If we're not going to be willing to box out and be physical and let people dominate the glass like that, we're kidding ourselves if we're going to be able to play that way and beat a good team."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.