WICHITA – Wichita State senior DJ McCarty put up a career-high 26 points in the Shockers' 74-65 bounce-back victory over Tulsa Saturday afternoon in Charles Koch Arena.
 
"It was an excellent overall performance," head coach Terry Nooner said. "It was a bigtime team effort. We had contributions from everybody we put in the game."
 
McCarty shot 8-for-18, dished out a game-high five assists and recorded two steals in her highest scoring game since Nov. 2022.
 
 "My season has been up and down, kind of injury ridden, so I think it was long overdue," McCarty said.
 
Her 36 minutes were the most she's played all season as she has slowly built up her minutes since sitting for a four-game stretch in the middle of the season to focus on rehabbing her knee.
 
"I told her we were going to need her to have a big scoring night without Tre'Zure [Jobe] playing, and she really controlled the game on both ends of the floor, got the ball to the right people, picked her spots when she needed to score versus when she needed to get it to somebody else, and she made the game go at our pace." Nooner said. "She just kept us in the right plays and the right offense, and to be able to play the amount of minutes she played was big for her."
 
After falling to Tulsa 93-70 on Jan. 20, the Shockers came into this game looking for revenge.
 
"We knew [the first performance against Tulsa earlier in the season] wasn't the typical Shocker performance that we want to put out on the floor, so I'm happy for them being able to bounce back and show that we, as a team, can bounce back against an opponent after a stinker game," head coach Terry Nooner said.
 
The Shockers out-rebounded the Golden Hurricane 43-37, forced 22 turnovers and held the American Athletic Conference leading scorer, Temira Poindexter, who averages 20.4 points per game, to 5-for-17 and 14 points.
 
The game saw nine lead changes and 15 ties before Wichita State pulled away at the end of the fourth quarter.
 
The Shockers scored 30 points in the paint as Daniela Abies recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 19 points and 13 rebounds, leading the team in rebounds for the 20^th time this season.
 
Sierra Morrow also finished in double figures for the second-straight game with 11 points, just missing a double-double with nine rebounds.
 
Raissa Nsabua recorded a game-high four steals and scored seven points, while Jayla Murray put up eight points for the Shockers.
 
Delanie Crawford led the Golden Hurricane with a game-high 29 points before fouling out in the last 20 seconds of the game.
 
After a back-and-forth first half where Crawford hit a buzzer beat to make it a two-point game in favor of Wichita State going into halftime, DJ McCarty came out in the third quarter and hit her first threes since Dec.16, draining her first one to tie it up at 40-40 and her second to tie it up again at 50-50.
 
The Golden Hurricane took a three-point lead at the end up the third with a three pointer by Katia Gallegos.
 
Neither team led by more than five until the fourth quarter when Tulsa took a six-point lead, their biggest of the game, hitting another of its 11 made threes in its first possession of the quarter.
 
A made layup by Abies and a pair of free throws apiece from her and McCarty regained the lead for the Shockers with 5:49 to play.
 
Tulsa tied it up twice more, but McCarty's third three pointer of the afternoon and a trio of Tulsa turnovers sparked the momentum Wichita State needed to finish out the game on an 11-2 run.
 
Wichita State improves to 8-18 (4-10 AAC) with its first home win since defeating Memphis on Jan. 17 as Tulsa falls to 18-8 (8-5 AAC) in its third-straight road loss.
 
The Shockers get a week of rest before traveling to Charlotte, N.C. to take on Charlotte Saturday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. in Halton Arena.