NEW ORLEANS – Second half issues popped up again in Wichita State's 85-75 loss at Tulane Friday night to end the regular season.

For next week's American Athletic Conference Championship, Wichita State (13-18, 5-13) will now have to play in the first round as either the No. 12 or No. 13 seed. A win would have given them a first round bye.

The Shockers led by two at halftime only to be outscored by 12 in the final 20 minutes, 43-31. Wichita State's task coming into the game was keeping Tulane off the free throw line. The Green Wave rank third nationally in free throws made and attempts per game. Entering the game, Tulane was 0-12 when they attempted fewer than 28 free throws. Tulane finished the game 23-for-32.

Tulane also snapped a seven-game losing streak overall in the process. They shot 51 percent from the field.

Wichita State was 9-for-24 from beyond the arc, but shot 40 percent overall and just 12-of-20 from the free throw line. After dominating the glass in the first half, Wichita State was minus-6 on the glass after halftime.

Colby Rogers recorded his third straight game with 20-plus points, scoring a career-high tying 29 on 6-of-13 from three-point range. Quincy Ballard recorded his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Harlond Beverly added 13 points and Dalen Ridgnal also pulled down 13 rebounds. He missed a double-double by two points.

A trio of alley-oop connections had the Shocker offense off and running early, building a 15-8 lead just 5:00 minutes into the game. Then in the span of 2:30, that lead was gone behind a Tulane 11-0 run.

After missing his first three shots, Rogers started to heat up at the right time. He scored all of his team-high 17 first half points in the final 8:37. At one point he scored 13 straight for Wichita State to put the Shockers up 42-33.

A half of runs finished with another Tulane spurt to make it 44-42 at the half. The Green Wave closed on a 9-2 run over the final 2:16.

Rogers (17) and Ballard (11) combined for 28 of Wichita State's 44 points in the first 20 minutes. Ballard nearly had a first half double-double with 11 and nine rebounds.

Despite Tulane out-shooting Wichita State 54 percent to 41 percent from the field, the Shockers attempted 15 more shots thanks to 12 offensive rebounds. Wichita State scored 12 points off those second and sometimes third opportunities. In total, the Shockers were plus-12 on the glass in the first half.

The first 5:00 minutes of the second half was dominated by Tulane. The Green Wave opened on a 14-2 run to take a 10-point lead. Back-to-back scores at the rim from Beverly briefly cut it to 57-50, but Tulane immediately came back with another 8-0 run to go up 65-50.

Wichita State would slowly but surely start to chip away at the deficit, pulling within six with 6:33 to go. The Shockers never got any closer than that as Tulane pushed it back to double digits with less than 2:00 minutes remaining.

Up Next
Wichita State heads to Fort Worth for the 2024 American Athletic Conference Championship, March 13-17.