Men's Basketball | 3/5/2022 5:36:00 PM
Ricky Council IV packed a lot of mistakes into 55 seconds – missed reverse dunk, travel, lost the ball when a defender poked it from behind.
Wichita State coach
Isaac Brown motioned Council over to the sideline.
"He was like 'That's three or four turnovers, and I'm keeping you in, so take care of the ball,'" Council said. "I couldn't get mad. I was the one who had the turnovers. He told me to lock in. He was giving me the confidence to stay on the court."
With that reminder and that boost, Council cranked up his familiar ownership of the game's deciding minutes. He scored all 16 of his second-half points in the game's final 14:43 and Wichita State closed out ECU 70-62 on Saturday at Koch Arena.
The Pirates (15-14, 6-11 American Athletic Conference) had no defender capable of keeping Council from driving to the lane. Once there, he dunked, laid the ball in or hung in the air for acrobatic baskets. The Shockers (15-12, 6-9) needed his burst after falling behind 39-36 with 15:01 to play.
"Second half, I just focused on going to the rim," Council said. "Once I saw it going in it just started flowing."
Council finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and a steal. Brown considered it a strong closing argument for Council's candidacy as the American's best sixth man. Add Saturday's game to his resume that includes 16 second-half points in a win over USF, 12 second-half points against SMU, 31 total against UCF and 12 in the final 10 minutes in a win at Oklahoma State.
Saturday, he took it to the Pirates with a similar sense of drama.
"He started taking care of the basketball," Brown said. "He started driving and attacking. When he comes off the bench, it's instant offense."
When it wasn't Council slicing to the rim, Shocker guard
Craig Porter Jr., took over. Porter, backing down smaller defenders or driving hard for layups and dunks, scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half. He also grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds and recorded four assists without a turnover. His chase-down block of Tremont Robinson-White's layup attempted provided the game's defensive highlight.
"Ricky was hot," guard
Tyson Etienne said. "Craig was hot. We kept going to the hot hand."
Etienne carried the Shockers with 12 first-half points, making 3 of 4 three-pointers. In the second half, the Shockers used the driving ability of Council and Porter and Etienne's shooting threat to overwhelm the Pirates in the final eight minutes.
"All three of us are threats," Porter said. "It was just a choice of who they were going to let score on them."
Brown used Porter's skills in the lane as a weapon to wear down ECU guard Tristen Newton, who led the Pirates with 16 points. For much of the game, Newton guarded Porter, who would get the offense starting and then move away from the ball. Brown switched to Wichita State's isolation game that made Newton work harder on defense.
"I thought attacking him affected his offense," Brown said. "He wasn't having to guard. Their leading scorer had to play no defense."
Etienne, as he often does, pointed to the team nature of the win. Porter, Council and Etienne supplied much of the scoring punch, and center
Morris Udeze added 12 points.
The contributions went deeper than that, with forward
Joe Pleasant turning in crucial defensive stops on ECU's Vance Jackson late and grabbing an offensive rebound that led to a layup for Council and a 62-56 lead. Guard
Qua Grant, building on his 13 points in Wednesday's win at Tulsa, contributed three steals and five assists.
The Shockers head to the conference tournament starting Thursday. If they are to making any kind of noise, contributions need to come from deep into the roster.
"Everybody played a part," Etienne said. "Qua gave us great energy. Joe had a big steal. We're clicking at a better frequency."
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
