CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wichita State’s road woes continued in a loss at Charlotte, 72-61, Sunday afternoon, dropping its ninth consecutive game away from Charles Koch Arena.

Wichita State (10-16, 2-11) couldn’t overcome a slow start that saw Charlotte score the first seven points of the game. The Shockers only had 10 turnovers in the game, but eight of those came in the first half, part of what allowed the Niners to build a double digit lead early.

Xavier Bell tallied a team-high 16 points off the bench and Quincy Ballard added 11.

Colby Rogers saw his streak of games with at least one made three-pointer come to an end at 25, tied for the fourth longest in school history. He finished with nine points – all after halftime – on 3-of-9 shooting and 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.

Wichita State’s free throw shooting over the last eight games had improved, but Sunday Wichita State was just 7-of-16. Meanwhile Charlotte converted 17-of-23.

Charlotte built an early 10-point lead, 14-4, behind Wichita State’s struggles on offense. The Shockers missed six of their first eight shots and had four turnovers. The Niners turned those early miscues into six points.

After a Wichita State timeout and two more turnovers, Charlotte pushed it to 17-4 with more than 11:00 minutes left in the half.

Wichita State finally started getting into a rhythm cutting the lead to 24-16 on back-to-back scores from Ronnie DeGray III and Xavier Bell. After a Charlotte bucket pushed it back to 10, a three-point play from Cortes had the Shockers within seven at the 4:04 mark.

The Niners had its own answer behind an 8-2 run once again pushing it back to 14.

An alley-oop connection between Cortes and Quincy Ballard on the final possession of the half sent the Shockers into the locker room trailing, 36-25.

Bell had 11 of Wichita State’s 25 points and Cortes chipped in seven. Colby Rogers was held scoreless and played only three minutes due to foul trouble.

After Charlotte grabbed its largest lead, 48-32, with 14:14 to go, Wichita State started to slowly chip away at the deficit. The Shockers finally got the margin to single digits at the 8:11 mark following scores from DeGray and Ballard.

On the next trip down Wichita State got an offensive rebound, tip-in from Jacob Germany to pull within six.

Wichita State had a couple chances to make it a two-possession game in the final 5:00 minutes, but Charlotte always had an answer. The free throw line proved costly down the stretch, as the Shockers went 6-for-12 after halftime.

Up Next
Wichita State opens a two-game homestand vs. Tulsa on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.