thesunflower
In a charity exhibition game at Charles Koch Arena on Wednesday night, the Wichita State Shockers were defeated by the Murray State Racers, 93-87. Following the loss, head coach Paul Mills emphasized that facing a talented Murray State team provided significant benefits for his squad.
The primary focus for Wichita State moving forward will be improving its defensive performance. The Shockers surrendered 57 points in the second half alone and allowed the Racers to shoot 42.3% from three-point range.
"As I told our players, 93 points, you're not gonna win a basketball game, and they all know that," Mills said. "And you know, to give up 52% (from the field) there in the second half. Didn't handle the heat very well."
Last season, Wichita State allowed such a high point total in regulation only once, a 93-83 loss to Tulsa.
Despite the setback, Mills viewed the opportunity to compete against Murray State, projected as a top mid-major program, as invaluable. "Just a wonderful opportunity for us, and we'll get a ton out of this film and be able to regroup," Mills said.
Wichita State outshot the Racers from the field, 46.6% to 43.1%, but committed 15 turnovers while recording 15 assists. The Shockers, who ranked fourth nationally in offensive rebounding last year, grabbed 11 offensive boards compared to Murray State's 12.
"It's been a minute since somebody's beat us on the offensive glass," Mills said. "What we're gonna do here is we are going to rebound the ball. So for us to be a minus one (in offensive rebounding differential), that's disappointing. The other thing we're gonna do is we're gonna take care of the ball. So to be one to one (in assist-to-turnover ratio), that's not OK."
Murray State sophomore Roman Domon, the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, led his team with 17 points and six assists. Senior guard Brayden Shorter added 16 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes, while guard Christian Jones contributed 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Freshman guard Talis Soulhac chipped in 12 points and six rebounds.
For the Shockers, junior forward Dillon Battie posted game highs in points (19) and rebounds (10), earning a double-double in just 22 minutes. "(I) just do what they ask me to do," Battie said. "Score when I need to. I trust my teammates, they make the right reads. Jordan (Frison) and Jahari (Long) both hit me in transition. Just take advantage of the opportunities."
Long, a guard entering his seventh season of college basketball, finished with 17 points, five assists, two rebounds, and a block. Joy Ighovodja made three of five three-point attempts and grabbed five rebounds in 12 minutes. Wichita State was without star guard Kenyon Giles, who is recovering from an ankle injury.
7-foot-2 center William Berg won the opening tip for the Shockers and scored with a hook shot to start the game 2-0. Murray State responded by hitting four of five three-pointers to take a 12-4 lead three minutes in. Later in the first half, Frison lobbed an alley-oop to Battie that cut the Racers' lead to 37-33 and capped an 8-0 WSU run. Wichita State shot 50% from the field in the first half and outrebounded Murray State 23-15, but committed nine turnovers compared to the Racers' two.
Ighovodja hit back-to-back threes early in the second half to give Wichita State a 45-40 lead. However, the Shockers went 4:20 without a field goal, allowing Murray State to take an 80-70 lead with under five minutes remaining. Wichita State's last threat came when it trailed 86-79 with less than two minutes to play. The Racers secured three consecutive offensive rebounds, including a put-back on the final board, to extend their lead to 88-79 with 1:45 left.
Murray State, expected to be one of the top teams in the MVC, likely benefited from a four-game European trip in August, during which they went 4-0 and scored over 100 points twice.
Like Mills, Long believes the loss to Murray State will help the Shockers improve. "I think we got a lot out of it," Long said. "It's the first time we got to compete against somebody else. I feel like that first game playing, like actual game-time minutes, you get a little fatigued. I think once we get in game shape, we'll be all right. We'll definitely learn from this."
Originally reported by thesunflower.