Wichita State Pulls Away From TU In Second Half

The 14th-ranked Wichita State Shockers scored 46 points in the second half for a 77-54 victory against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in front of 5,446 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center Wednesday night.

Wichita State (5-0) was led with 21 points from both Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, while Hurricane senior Pat Swilling was Tulsa's lone double-figure scorer with 12 points. Tulsa sophomore guard James Woodard added eight points and led the Hurricane in rebounding for the third straight game with nine boards.

"We got beat. We need to get better. There are no moral victories. Moral victories don't make you better," said Tulsa Head Coach Danny Manning. "We want to have a second half similar to our first half. That is the message to our guys. We have to continue to fight and get better and execute."

After a 31-31 halftime score, the Shockers came out in the second half and shot 54 percent from the field and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line in the final 20 minutes for the 23-point victory. Tulsa shot just 33-percent in the second half after shooting 45-percent in the first half. The Hurricane continued its poor shooting at home from the free throw line, hitting just 43-percent on 13-of-30 for the game.

Wichita State jumped out to a 36-31 lead in the first 0:46 of the second half before Tim Peete hit a three-pointer for the Hurricane. Tulsa tied the score at 38-38 on a Shaquille Harrison jumper, and again tied the score at 42 with 15:06 left on the game clock.

With Tulsa trailing by three 51-48 at the 10:45 mark, the Shockers went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes to take an 11-point lead, 59-48, on a VanVleet layup with 8:42 remaining in the game.

Tulsa kept the deficit under 14 points for the next three minutes before a dunk and three-pointer by Ron Baker put the Shockers ahead by 18 points, 71-53, with 4:09 left in the contest. Wichita State closed out the game with two more treys.

The first half was back-and-forth as there were eight lead changes. Wichita State got on the board first with a three-pointer from Ron Baker at the 18:23 mark. Tulsa scored on a James Woodard layup and D'Andre Wright's three-pointer put the Hurricane ahead 5-3 at the 17:39 mark.

The biggest first-half lead for either team was three points, five times for the Shockers with the latest coming at the 6:05 mark, 25-22 on a Fred VanVleet layup. Tulsa had a three-point lead three times in the first 20 minutes. Tulsa's latest 3-point lead came at 21-18 on a Rashad Ray layup with 7:50 remaining.

Tulsa tied the score seconds before halftime buzzer sounded as Rashad Ray scored a fast-break layup at the 0:05 mark.

Wichita State's VanVleet led all scorers in the first half with 10 points, while Lew Evans and James Woodard shared the scoring lead for the Hurricane with six points apiece. Tulsa shot 45.5-percent from the field, while holding the Shockers to 35.7-percent in the first half.

Tulsa goes on the road for a Saturday, Nov. 23rd game against the Creighton Bluejays.