GREENVILLE, S.C.
 
Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall needed his big man, so after practice on Monday, he checked on senior Jaime Echenique. He made sure Echenique knew he was paying attention and offered to help.
 
Turns out, the chat was enough. Echenique appreciated the fact Marshall showed he cared.
 
"He cares a lot about the players, so when we have struggles, he'll talk to us about what's going on," Echenique said. "He always listens to me. When I talked to him, I felt like that really helped me."
 
Echenique and fellow center Asbjørn Midtgaard took center stage in Wednesday's 76-70 win over third-seeded Furman at Timmons Arena in the NIT. Wichita State had to utilize its size to win and it needed every inch of its advantage over the Paladins.
 
The sixth-seeded Shockers (20-14) advance to Sunday's second-round game (1 p.m., ESPN) at second-seeded Clemson. The Tigers (20-13) defeated Wright State 75-69 on Tuesday.
 
Marshall claimed career win No. 500 (500-195 in 21 seasons) and the Shockers hit the 20-win mark for the 10^thconsecutive season.
 
Echenique scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for his second double-double this season. Midtgaard scored nine points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked two shots in 16 minutes off the bench. The Shockers ran ball-screen after ball-screen to get their big men rolling to the basket and force the Paladins to guard them with smaller defenders or leave three-point shooters open. The big men posted up and they combined to grab seven offensive rebounds.
 
Coaches designed the offensive plan to help on defense. Wichita State wanted Furman center Matt Rafferty to work as much as possible on defense, guarding screens out to the three-point line and then recovering toward the basket, to get into his legs. 
 
"Work it inside-out," Shockers point guard Jamarius Burton said. "Their big man plays 30-something minutes, so if you can wear him down on the defensive end, that can affect his offense."
 
Rafferty, a 6-foot-8 senior played superbly, scoring 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. He didn't get any rest on defense because the Shockers kept him moving with their screen-and-rolls.
 
"It was strictly to combat Rafferty on the other end," Marshall said. "We knew how talented he was and how important he was on their end. We wanted to make him guard."
 
Rafferty scored big. So did the Shockers center duo. Marshall feels better about the NIT after Echenique's bounce-back game. He struggled in the American Athletic Conference Tournament against Temple and Cincinnati. Wichita State won't advance far in the NIT without him contributing.
 
Marshall checked on his physical health and his mood on the Koch Arena court after practice, asking if anything was wrong in his life."
 
"He assured me that there wasn't and he was very disappointed in how he performed," Marshall said. "I just appealed to his big heart. He and Asbjørn were really good."
 
The Shockers turned the ball over 13 times, which meant they needed to win possession elsewhere. They did that by grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to convert 16 second-chance points.
 
Wichita State guard Erik Stevenson puts some belief in the concept of "shooter's gyms." If that exists, put Timmons Arena in that category.
 
"The rims felt wider," he said. "Wider than usual. And there was a background behind the goal. We weren't playing in a big, circular arena."
 
Those rims did welcome in shots by Stevenson. He made 4 of 6 shots, two from behind the FIBA three-point line, to score 12 points. The NIT uses the FIBA distance, around 1 foot, 8 inches deeper than the college three-point line.
 
In a close game, every basket seems crucial and Stevenson did his part. He made his first three to tie it 31-all in the first half. In the second half, he made a three-pointer to cut Furman's lead to 49-48.
 "I just felt like I was in a good rhythm," he said. "They were trying to take away Markis (McDuffie) and Samajae (Haynes-Jones), so I had to step up, shoot it like I usually do."
 
Stevenson led Wichita State' bench scoring, which totaled 25 points and outscored Furman by 22.
 
The Shockers scored on eight of their final nine possessions to turn a 60-all tie into a six-point win over the final 4 minutes, 32 seconds.
 
They leaned on McDuffie and Haynes-Jones, their seniors, to close. McDuffie scored six of those points and Haynes-Jones scored four, including a 15-foot jumper for a 70-66 lead with 44 seconds to play. 
 
Burton passed to Echenique for a layup that gave the Shockers the lead for good at 68-66.
 
"That was a big play," Marshall said. "As a freshman sometimes his vision is not as acute as you would like it to, but, man, that was a great play. There was not a lot of room to make that pass."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.