Brown and Taylor strong against the Shockers
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Wichita State outscored the University of Evansville men’s basketball team by a 52-32 tally in the second half as they earned an 82-65 win over the Purple Aces on Tuesday night at the Ford Center.
Pacing UE (10-10, 1-6 MVC) once again was Jaylon Brown. He totaled 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Ryan Taylor registered 17 points while knocking down four triples. Dru Smith contributed in several facets, posting a career-best 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
“We did a lot of good things for most of the game, but had a few breakdowns in the final minutes,” Aces head coach Marty Simmons said. “Overall, I thought we competed pretty hard and can take a lot of positives away from tonight’s game.”
Wichita State (16-4, 6-1 MVC) was led by Shaquille Morris, who notched 17 points and 10 rebounds. He was one of five Shockers players to finish in double figures.
Evansville led by as many as 13 points in a dominant first half as they went to the half leading 33-30. The Aces opened the game hitting their first four shots on their way to an 8-6 lead. Shaquille Morris scored the first eight for the Shockers as they tied it up at 8-8 before a Conner Frankamp trey gave WSU their first lead at 11-10 five minutes in.
With the score tied at 13-13, UE went on an 11-2 stretch that saw them open up a 24-15 advantage with four different players scoring in the run. Landry Shamet ended the stretch as an and-one made it a 24-18 game. Ryan Taylor helped UE open its largest lead of the game as back-to-back triples helped the Aces open up their largest lead of the night at 30-19 with just over five minutes remaining. The Shockers refused to give up as their defense clamped down, holding UE to one point in the final minutes while treys from Shamet and Austin Reaves got WSU within three at 33-30 going into halftime.
Three triples in the opening minutes of the second half saw the Shockers complete an 18-3 run as they took their biggest lead to that point at 39-35. Sergej Vucetic ended the run before a Jaylon Brown three put UE back on top at 40-39. Ryan Taylor added four points to complete a 9-0 run that gave the Aces a 44-39 lead.
Frankamp hit consecutive treys as WSU went back on top at 48-46. After the Shockers pushed the lead to 53-48, Taylor ended the stretch with an and-one, but Frankamp struck again with his fourth trey to make it a 58-51 game and it was all Shockers from there as they extended their edge to the final of 82-65.
A strong second half saw WSU finish with a 33-31rebounding edge and a 50.9%-44.2% shooting lead. The Shockers went 18-of-27 (66.7%) in the second frame.
Trips to Chicago and Cedar Falls await the Aces over the next eight days. On Saturday, the Aces take on Loyola in a 3 p.m. game
