Doing What Shockers Do

(St. Louis, MO) – Battle Number One goes to Wichita State! The pre-season Missouri Valley Conference favorite defeated Evansville 67-64 on Wednesday. Both teams entered the game with 2-0 conference records and the Shockers did what they usually do. They win at home and they harass the best players into their worst games.

Evansville (13-3) came into the game riding the scoring of D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius. Balentine scored a season worst 14 points on a six of 17 shooting performance and Mockevicius only attempted four shots and failing the reach double figures for just the second time all season and half of his regular total.

Gregg Marshall’s team forced 18 turnovers and collected six steals. Evansville handed out 14 assists in the game, compared to the 21 they’ve averaged all season. Wichita (9-5) forces other teams out of their comfort zones and forces them into long and sometimes bad possessions.

Due to their stellar defense the Shockers attempted 13 more shots than the Aces and converted four of them. WSU has now won 39 straight home games. Evansville was the last team to defeat the Shockers at in Wichita.

Transfer Anton Grady led WSU with 17 points. All-American guard Fred VanVleet scored 16 points and handed out nine assists, but it was Zach Brown’s only three points of the game with 19 seconds left than sealed the victory.

There are now three MVC teams with unblemished league records. Illinois State and Southern Illinois are the other two. Marshall’s team travels to Carbondale for a date with the Salukis on Saturday.

Since VanVleet has returned to the lineup, the defending MVC champions have won seven of their last eight games, including their last four. Southern Illinois (14-2, 3-0) has won six in-a-row and nine of their last 10 games.

Do Good