WICHITA, Kan. – Five players finished in double-figures to help No. 13 Wichita State hang on to defeat Tulane, 93-86, Wednesday night in Charles Koch Arena.
Wichita State (22-5, 12-3) survived the Green Wave’s second half comeback without the services of sophomore guard Landry Shamet, who didn’t suit up due to illness.
Shaquille Morris tallied his sixth 20-point game of the season with a game-high 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Morris also converted at the free throw line, going 10-of-13.
Conner Frankamp tied a career high with 18 points – 11 coming after halftime. Markis McDuffie and C.J. Keyser gave the Shockers a boost off the bench with 15 and 11 points, respectively. McDuffie’s 15 points marked a season high and Keyser’s set a new career best.
Austin Reaves added 10 to round out the double-figure scorers.
The Shockers finished the game 9-of-20 from behind the three-point line and shot 49.2 percent overall. Tulane (13-14, 4-11) shot 61.8 percent in the second half and scored 55 points after the break to make it a game after trailing by 16 at half. The Green Wave shot 50 percent overall and hit 11-of-19 three-pointers.
Melvin Frazier scored all 22 of his team-high points in the second half to go with a game-high 11 rebounds. Samir Sehic (16), Cameron Reynolds (14), Ray Ona Embo (12) and Caleb Daniels (11) all finished in double-digits for the Waves.
After missing 10 of their first 15 attempts to open the game, the Shockers started to heat up near the midway point. With just under seven minutes to play, Wichita State stretched its lead to nine following a Morris three-point play and three-pointer from McDuffie.
Tulane wouldn’t go down quietly. Wichita State pushed its lead to double-figures, but the Green Wave responded twice to cut it back to single digits. The lead was 34-26 with 3:15 remaining in the first half before a 7-0 run upped it to 16.
Keyser came in and provided a spark off the bench in the final minutes, scoring seven points to help build a 47-31 lead at the break.
Morris led all scorers after 20 minutes of play with 12 points in only 12 minutes.
The Shockers hit 49 percent of their field goal attempts, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc. Despite hitting 5-of-10 three-pointers of their own, the Green Wave shot just 36 percent overall.
Wichita State would score the first bucket to open the second half, but the Green Wave came back with a 13-2 run to shrink the lead to seven. Tulane started 10-of-14 from the field, as WSU saw its lead dip to as many as five with just over 10 minutes remaining.
A Reaves three-pointer was a brief Shocker answer, but Tulane again got it down to six with 9:05 to play.
Frankamp’s long-range bomb would spark five straight to force a Green Wave timeout and the lead at 70-59. Just when it looked like that would be the knockout blow, Tulane again hit back to pull within six and only 6:54 remaining.
Tulane would come as close as four, but key turnovers would keep them from coming any closer. At the final media timeout with 3:33 to go, Wichita State held a slight 80-74 lead, but Frankamp would be at the line for two free throws when play resumed.
Three-pointers in the final minute saw the lead dip to four again, but the Shockers converted at the charity stripe and came up with stops when needed to hang on.
