Wichita State Athletics
WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State collected its eighth-straight win in the series vs. Drake and sixth straight Missouri Valley Conference opener with a 67-47 win over the Bulldogs Thursday afternoon at Charles Koch Arena.
The win improved Wichita State (7-5, 1-0) to 56-8 at home in MVC games since the start of the 2008-09 season and now lead the all-time series vs. Drake (5-8, 0-1), 101-47. The Shockers also extended their school-record home court winning streak to 38 consecutive, which ties Tulsa (1980-82) for the fourth-longest in MVC history.
Senior Ron Baker led a trio of Shockers in double-figures with 14 points, 11 coming in the second half, on 5-of-7 shooting overall, including 3-of-4 from downtown. Baker also added five rebounds. Fred VanVleet contributed another strong outing, finishing with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting, six assists and three steals. His six assists give him 501 for his career to become only the 14th player in MVC history to dish out 500 assists.
Zach Brown chipped in 10 points and four rebounds in 24 minutes of action.
Behind 52 percent shooting in the second half, the Shockers finished the game at 42.6 percent (23-of-54), while knocking down 8-of-24 three-point attempts in the contest. WSU’s defense again made life difficult for the opponent, holding Drake to just 37 percent shooting from the field and three-point range and forcing 18 Bulldog turnovers.
The Shockers owned the battle of the boards by outrebounding DU, 38-28, while also outscoring the Bulldogs in the paint (24-10) and off turnovers (26-13).
Kale Abrahamson and Graham Woodward led Drake with 12 points apiece, but also combined to turn the ball over 11 times between the two of them.
WSU extended its halftime lead to 19 just over five minutes into the second half on the heels of a 13-2 run. During the run the Shockers got five points from VanVleet and four each from Brown and Anton Grady.
Baker connected on a corner three to push the Shockers’ lead to 21 at the 8:30 mark. Just a few minutes later the Scott City native’s third trey of the game put WSU ahead 60-38.
Wichita State started the game quickly by opening on an 8-1 run courtesy of a hook shot from Shaquille Morris and three-pointers from Brown and VanVleet. The two teams remained close for a majority of the opening half with the Shockers’ largest lead being only eight. After Drake tied the game at 25 near the four-minute mark, WSU closed the half on an 8-0 run to take a 33-25 lead into the locker room.
VanVleet led the Shockers with eight first half points and four assists on 3-of-8 shooting from the floor. Wichita State began the game on a hot streak from the floor, but cooled down as the half went on and finished just 12-of-33 from the field, good for 36 percent. WSU knocked down its first three 3-point attempts, but made two of its final 13 attempts to close the half.
The Shockers relied on creating turnovers, as they forced nine Bulldog miscues and turned them into 15 points.
Drake shot 41 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes of play. Abrahamson led all scorers with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
The Shockers hit the road Sunday to take on Bradley in a 1 p.m. CT tip that can be seen locally on Cox Channel Kansas and online via ESPN3. WSU then hosts Evansville on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.