2011 Missouri Valley Conference Basketball |
|
MVC Fans Home |
Wichita State Shockers @ Indiana State Sycamores Basketball RecapWichita State 70, Indiana State 54 And then there were three. A Missouri Valley race that was getting increasingly crowded over the past few weeks just began to thin out a little bit on a night that became doubly cold for fans of the Indiana State Sycamores. With a ferocious blizzard sinking its teeth into the vast expanses of the American Midwest, life got even chillier for Indiana State partisans who, just three weeks ago, were beginning to be quite optimistic about their team’s season. Now, it’s a campaign that lies in ruins. Yes, the big and bad visitors from the state of Kansas drove what might have been the final stake in ISU’s heart. Wichita State used a big night from Garrett Stutz and a strong second half to pull away from Indiana State and walk out of the Hulman Center in Terra Haute, Indiana, with a 16-point win – a win that has vaulted Wichita State into first place in the Missouri Valley Conference while landing the Sycamores on the canvas in the league race. Wichita State moved to 10-2 in the Valley, a half-game ahead of 9-2 Missouri State, while Indiana State fell to 7-5, now two games behind third-place (8-3) Northern Iowa in the loss column.
WSU’s Stutz went 7-of-9 from the field and delivered a take-charge type of performance that good teams need in order to win on the road in the middle of a long conference season. Stutz finished the night with 15 points. His tip-in with 1:37 left in the first half put the Shockers up 29-28, and Wichita State never trailed again after that point in time. J.T. Durley pitched in 13 for the Shockers, who swept the season series from the Sycamores and established a considerable amount of leverage against ISU. Coach Gregg Marshall's Shockers weren’t interested in any drama in this game. They stormed out of the gate after halftime and forged a commanding 39-26 lead in the second half, extending that cushion to as much as 18 points in the final two minutes of regulation.
The first half of this game ended with Wichita State up 31-28, giving hope that the contest would potentially unfold the way it did the first time these teams met this season. That previous meeting, which took place nine days ago, saw these two teams battle through three overtime periods before the Shockers emerged with a 93-83 win on their home floor. However, Coach Gregg Marshall's WSU crew wasn’t interested in any drama in this game. The Shockers stormed out of the gate after halftime and forged a commanding 39-26 lead in the second half, extending that cushion to as much as 18 points in the final two minutes of regulation. At that time of the triple-overtime loss in Wichita, Indiana State saw a six-game league winning streak come to an end, but that long stretch of success powered the Sycamores to a 7-2 league record and the top tier of the Valley standings. Now, however, the outlook is profoundly different. ISU coach Greg Lansing has watched helplessly as his team has now dropped its fourth straight game (their third double-digit loss in this calamitous nine-day stretch), a sharp fall from what was a very impressive start in conference play.
By: Matt Zemek |