Dru Smith Has Career Game Against Wichita State

Senior Day set for Saturday at noon against Indiana State

 WICHITA, Kan. – Freshman Dru Smith had the top game of his young career as the Evansville native finished with 19 points as Wichita State earned a 109-83 win over the University of Evansville men’s basketball team on Tuesday night at Charles Koch Arena.

Smith connected on five triples in the game, also a career mark.  Leading the squad in scoring was Jaylon Brown, who notched 25 points and added 10 more free throws to his season tally.  Duane Gibson was the third double figure scorer for UE (14-16, 5-12 MVC) as he totaled 10.

“They executed a lot better than we did and we played well for portions of the game, but could not sustain it,” head coach Marty Simmons said.  “Our guys did a nice job of battling through some adversity.”

Leading the Shockers (26-4, 16-1 MVC) was Shaquille Morris, who finished with 18.  He was one of six double figure scorers for WSU.

Evansville took a 4-2 lead in the early-going as Duane Gibson went coast-to-coast before Jaylon Brown hit a triple to give the Aces a 7-5 lead with 17:10 left in the half.

A 14-2 run by the Shockers saw them take the first double-figure lead of the game at 19-9.  Darral Willis Jr. capped off the run with back-to-back field goals.  The Aces battled back as an and-one from Ryan Taylor at the midway point of the period got UE within six at 24-18, but Wichita State made another big push.

This time, WSU outscored UE by a 22-8 margin to open up a 46-26 lead with 2:16 on the clock.  Three triples by Conner Frankamp made the difference as the Shockers went up by 20.  Over the final three minutes of the half, the Aces defense held WSU without a field goal while cutting into the lead.  Dru Smith’s third triple of the day helped UE head to the break trailing by 16 points at 48-32.

Out of the locker room, Wichita State was at it again as they quickly pushed the lead to 25 points at 62-37 with 16:43 remaining.  Just over three minutes later, a pair of Smith free throws got cut the gap to 18 points at 66-48, but the Shockers quickly pushed it back above 20 before cruising to the win.

WSU shot 53.8% on the game while UE finished at 49.1%.  The Shockers also finished with a 35-26 edge on the boards.  Evansville had its highest scoring output versus the Shockers since notching 84 in an 89-84 road loss in 2003.

Senior Day is set for Saturday at the Ford Center at noon as Christian Benzon, Jaylon Brown, David Howard, Sergej Vucetic and Willie Wiley will be honored.  Evansville looks to earn the season split against Indiana State in the regular season finale.