The RoundHouse | 11/1/2023 9:17:00 PM

By Paul Suellentrop

Salese Blow comes from a serious basketball family that spent the spring preparing her for college life.
 
That means a lot of time in the gym with dad, a man who's played and coached a lot of basketball and knows the difference between high school and college.
 
"We sat down one day and said, 'We're going to have to get her in shape,'" Demetrius Blow said. "We started keeping her in the gym at least four days a week.  Put up a lot of shots and we made her run the court."
 
While Salese Blow didn't enjoy those sprints, she kept at it.
 
"If you didn't make the time, you've got to do it again," she said. "Dad don't let up."
 
The Blow family watched the payoff on Wednesday in Wichita State's 75-65 exhibition win over NCAA Division II Missouri Southern at Koch Arena. Demetrius and Stacie, who played at Arizona, sat behind the Shocker bench and they stood in the front row to give Salese a big hug after the game. After Salese did post-game interviews, mom waited for her in the tunnel for more celebration before the five-plus hour drive back home that night.
 
"I'm so glad we made the drive down from Dallas," Stacie Blow said. "She explained before that she was extremely nervous. I told my husband can't remember the last time she was nervous. I knew once she put down a couple of shots the nerves would go away."
 
That is exactly how it unfolded for Salese Blow, a freshman who averaged 32.8 points for Plano (Texas) High School. She made a three-pointer late in the first quarter on her way to seven first-half points. She finished with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting with two threes.
 
"The three-pointer in the corner (first quarter) was definitely like 'Ok, I'm here,'" she said.
 
By the end, she was tired and happy knowing all those sprints in the gym paid off. All summer, coach Terry Nooner talked about Blow coming to campus ready to play in a way many freshmen are not.
 
"My parents pushed me," she said. "Coming here in good shape – look, I got to play."
 
Nooner got what he expected from the freshman.
 
"She's been scoring her whole life," Nooner said. "Super-efficient. She made some great reads on some of the set plays that we called."
 
Tre'Zure Jobe doesn't see Blow as a freshman once the game starts.
 
"She knows how to play ball," Jobe said. "Coach brought her here for a reason."
 
Jobe, a graduate transfer from Emporia State, scored 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting and grabbed five steals.
 
Wichita State trailed 20-15 after the first quarter before leading 37-33 at halftime. The Shockers built their lead to as many as 18 in the fourth quarter. Jobe got the Shockers untracked in the second quarter with 14 of the team's 22 points and pesky defense that started to unravel the Lions.
 
"She turned it on for us with her defense," Nooner said.
 
The Shockers open the regular season at Oklahoma on Monday (noon, ESPN+).
 
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.