UNCASVILLE, Conn. – No. 7 Wichita State punched its ticket to the American Athletic Conference Quarterfinals for the first time in program history with a 72-64 win over No. 10 Houston in the first round Friday night.
Wichita State (16-14) won its first-ever American Athletic Conference Championship game after coming into the tournament 0-2 all-time and will now play No. 2 seed UCF Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN3.
Trajata Colbert registered her second career double-double and first of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Carla Bremaud added 11 points and
Mariah McCully scored nine of her 12 points after halftime.
The Shockers cooled off a little in the second half but still finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field, including a 6-for-12 mark from beyond the arc. Wichita State also made the most of its attempts at the line, going 14-of-15.
In the regular season meeting Wichita State committed a season-high 38 turnovers, but only turned it over 18 times tonight, and also outrebounded the Cougars by 10.
The Cougars were able to claw back into it from behind the three-point line where they made 10-of-27.
Dymond Gladney scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-15 from three-point range. Julia Blackshell-Fair and Tatyana Hill added 17 and 13 points, respectively.
Houston took a 5-2 lead in the opening minutes, but Wichita State would dominate the final 5:40. The Shockers closed the quarter on a 20-2 run to lead 22-7 after 10 minutes of play. Wichita State held Houston to 2-of-16 shooting from the field and the Cougars missed all six of their three-point tries.
Wichita State shot a blistering 64 percent in quarter No. 1 and scored 14 of its 22 points in the paint.
The Shocker offense continued its stellar play in the second quarter, extending the lead to 19 with 3:00 minutes left. Houston missed 21 of its first 25 attempts, while Wichita State was converting at a 59 percent clip.
At the half, Wichita State led 39-20 and every player but one that checked in scored in the first half. McCarty and Brewer led with seven points apiece. Wichita State finished the half shooting 56 percent and hit 5-of-8 long range attempts.
Houston struggled the entire half on the offensive end, putting together numbers of 18 percent from the floor, 3-for-13 from three and was outrebounded by eight.
An 8-0 run to open the third quarter pulled Houston within 11, and forced a
Keitha Adams timeout just over two minutes in. Five straight points out of the timeout by McCully pushed the margin back to 16.
The Cougars again strung together some scores to close the gap to 10, 48-38, with 1:54 remaining, but a Bremaud three-pointer would prevent the lead from dipping into single digits. After three quarters Wichita State led 53-40.
Wichita State's lead was trimmed to single digits for the first time since the opening quarter at the 7:14 mark. Baskets from Bremaud and Colbert stretched it back to 12, but again Houston fought back.
Three-pointers from Gladney and Bria Patterson and a pair of Maya Jones free throws cut the deficit to just five with 1:24 remaining. McCully and Blackshell-Fair traded layups with less than a minute remaining.
Seraphine Bastin then went 2-for-2 at the line to make it 68-61.
Houston's final push came with 24 seconds left behind another Maya Jones triple to make the score 68-64. That would be as close as they would come, as Bastin sealed the win with four free throws.
