Feb. 21, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
WICHITA, Kansas - Toure' Murry scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half and Wichita State shot 63-percent from three-point as the Shockers out-shot Cleveland State, 70-48, on Saturday afternoon in an ESPNU BracketBusters matchup in WSU's Charles Koch Arena.
Playing in front of a near-capacity crowd of 10,443, Wichita State shot the lights out in the second half, making seven of its 11 three-point attempts (.636) after the intermission to end Cleveland State's (20-9) seven-game win streak. WSU improves to 14-14, including a 12-3 mark at home.
J'Nathan Bullock and D'Aundray Brown led CSU with 12 points each while Cedric Jackson added 10 points. Murry led the five Wichita State starters, each of whom scored in double figures. Clevin Hannah added 13 points, J.T. Durley 11 and Ramon Clemente and A.J. Hawkins 10 points each.
"It is disappointing that we didn't come out and give it our full effort today," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We left too many shooters wide-open for shots and Wichita State seemed to take advantage of it every time.
"We were able to keep the game close until we hit a cold spell midway through the half. We had a lot of opportunities but just couldn't capitalize on them."
The Vikings refused to go away in the second half, pulling to within two on two separate occasions over the first five minutes of the second half, but Murry took matters into his own hands, draining a three that gave the Shockers a five-point 43-38 advantage at the 14:25 mark.
Hannah nailed a jumper two minutes later before a three-point shootout erupted. The two teams combined to hit five-straight three-pointers over the next three minutes, three of which came from Murry as the freshman pushed his team's lead back out to six, 54-48, with 8:22 remaining.
Murry's last three ignited a 9-0 run that gave WSU a 12-point edge, 60-48, with exactly four minutes remaining in the contest.
"It is hard to play catch-up when you are scoring two's and they are scoring three's," Waters said. "Just when we would get within reach, somebody would go and make another three."
The Vikings shot a more-than-respectable .460 from the field (23-50) and .385 from three-point (5-13) but struggled to make just 8-of-15 from the stripe. Wichita State, on the other hand, seemed like they could not miss. The Shockers shot .542 from the field (26-48) and .800 from the line (8-10),
"We missed out on recording a good win for this program," Waters said. "We're going to play most of our games the rest of the year on the road and in front of hostile crowds. Today is an example of what we are going to need to learn to overcome."
Wichita State led for most of the first half before the Vikings rallied to trail 34-30 at the intermission.
The Shockers jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead (16:43) as they used their size inside to their advantage.
The Vikings countered, running off six straight points to pull ahead, 8-6 (15:11) with each basket coming in transition.
After George Tandy made one of two free throws to put CSU ahead, 9-8 with 13:50 left, Wichita State ran off 10 straight points over the next two-and-a-half minutes to lead, 18-9 (11:10).
The Shocker lead would grow to as many as 12 (28-16, 6:40) before six straight Vikings points, coming on a transition layup by Brown, a fast-break dunk by Norris Cole and a short jumper from Jackson.
A three-pointer by Jackson at the 1:58 mark pulled CSU to within 32-29 and the margin was four at the intermission.
The Vikings remain on the road next week to conclude the 2008-09 regular season with road games at Valparaiso on Thursday (Feb. 26) and Butler on Saturday (Feb. 28).
