WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State outscored Rice by 18 after halftime to win convincingly, 87-66, in the final home game of the season Saturday night in Charles Koch Arena.

Wichita State (13-17, 5-12) saved its best shooting performance for the home finale. The Shockers were 14-for-22 from three-point range. That 63.6 percent is the highest in school history on a minimum of 10 makes. The 14 made triples tied for the sixth most in school history.

Colby Rogers recorded his second straight 20-point game with a game-high 25. He set a new career high with seven made three-pointers, going 7-for-9. Over the last two games he’s 12-for-15 from beyond the arc.

Harlond Beverly scored a season-high 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point range. In his final home game, Dalen Ridgnal scored nine of his 11 points in the first half. He also knocked down three three-pointers.

Wichita State shot 52.6 percent overall from the field and nearly perfect at the free throw line, going 13-for-14.

Wichita State dominated the glass, outrebounding the Owls by 15, including just four offensive rebounds.

Wichita State and Rice went back and forth the first 20 minutes with neither team leading by more than five points. Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field and combined for 12 three-pointers, eight of them by the Shockers.

Rogers continued his white-hot shooting with a game-high 17 points in the first half. His season high in made three-pointers was five. He tied that in the first half alone, going 5-for-6.

His fifth three-pointer came just before the halftime buzzer sounded to give Wichita State a 42-39 lead at the half.

To open the second half Wichita State hit the Owls with a 15-6 run to grab its largest lead, 57-45. Beverly (8) and Rogers (5) combined for 13 of the 15 points.

With 7:45 left, Rogers capped a 16-3 run with his seventh triple to put Wichita State up 77-53. Beverly scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half, including seven during that stretch to put the game away.

Two minutes later Beverly made two spectacular plays on back-to-back possessions. The first was an acrobatic layup in traffic and then on the very next possession Beverly received a pass off a rebound and completed a perfectly executed 2-on-1 fast break with Ronnie DeGray III. DeGray finished the layup plus the foul to make it 84-58.

The cherry on top came in the final minute when Joy Ighovodja whipped a perfect pass to Trevor McBride for a wide open three-pointer in front of the Wichita State bench, sending the arena into a frenzy.

Up Next
Wichita State travels to New Orleans for the regular season finale at Tulane on March 8 at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.