Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
14-3, 3-1
Wichita St.
10-5, 4-0
Wichita State overwhelms Men's Basketball, 83-58
01/09/2016 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Wichita State has been the "gold standard" program of the Missouri Valley Conference the past five years, and on Saturday showed no signs of relinquishing that mantle. In front of a hostile, sold-out crowd at SIU Arena, the Shockers (10-5, 4-0) never flinched, overwhelming Southern Illinois, 83-58.
The game was a reality check for the Salukis (14-3, 3-1), who have been the Cinderella team of the first half of the season but had not faced a program of Wichita State's caliber. It was the program's most lopsided loss since falling at Illinois State by 36 in 2013. Senior guard Anthony Beane entered as the second-leading scorer in the conference, and he did manage to score 15 points, but he was limited to 3-of-14 from the field.
There was no phase of the game in which Wichita State did not dominate, and at times, it looked effortless. The Shox were 12-of-24 from 3-point, compared to 1-for-11 by SIU. Sharpshooters Ron Baker (3-of-7) and Conner Frankamp (4-of-7) did much of the damage, but in an impressive show of roster depth, seven different players made treys for WSU.
Baker led all scorers with 18 points. His first bucket came just nine seconds after the opening tip, as he blew past a defender for a layup. He had 16 first-half points, including three treys, as the Shockers built a commanding 43-29 halftime advantage.
Southern never got its offense untracked, due largely to Beane's struggles. The Shockers defended the 6-foot-2 guard with taller wing players in 6-foot-6 Zach Brown and 6-foot-8 Markis McDuffie.
"(Beane) ends up with 15, but eight or 10 of those had to be in mop-up duty," said Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall. "He's a great player and I have the utmost respect for him. I talked to his dad (Anthony Beane Sr.) before the game. He's playing at another level, but Zach Brown and Markis McDuffie did a wonderful job on him."
The second half got off to a bad start for SIU when Tyler Smithpeters had the in-bounds pass stolen by Evan Wessel, which led to a dunk by Shaquille Morris. It was the beginning of a 16-3 onslaught by the Shockers. Wichita State's biggest lead of the night was 33 points when McDuffie made a layup to make it 73-40 with 7:05 remaining. At that point, Marshall substituted liberally, putting the game on cruise control.
"That's a different ball club than we've seen," said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. "We got punched and we didn't get back up off the mat. That's the first time that's happened this year."
Perhaps the most telling statistic of how thoroughly Wichita State controlled the action was its 14-2 edge in assists. Point guard Fred VanVleet had six assists and no turnovers. Meanwhile, the Salukis had zero assists in the second half and committed a dozen turnovers.
"I thought we would handle this better -- I'm really disappointed," Hinson said. "I can't come in here and talk about one player -- not one player played well today. In order for us to beat a team like Wichita State we have to have lots of players play well."
The Salukis were beaten soundly on the boards, 40-25, but SIU junior center Bola Olaniyan was a bright spot battling for a season-high 11 points to go with eight rebounds. Leo Vincent and Armon Fletcher both scored eight points off the bench for Southern, which had its six-game winning streak snapped.
"Coach Hinson has changed whatever vibe there was in the program," Marshall said. "You lost a couple of good players (after last season) for whatever reason, and replaced them with guys who seem to be more on the same page. They had our attention big-time."
