WICHITA, Kan. – Behind a season-high 24 points from Mariah McCully, Wichita State extended its winning streak to four in a row with a 78-62 win over Oral Roberts Wednesday night in Charles Koch Arena.
Wichita State (7-1) is off to its best start through its first eight games in program history.
Mariah McCully registered the Shockers’ first 20-point performance of the season with a game-high 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting. Asia Strong notched her first double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 boards – scoring 12 of her 16 before halftime. Seraphine Bastin added a season-high 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Jane Asinde saw her streak of double-doubles come to an end at three, finishing with eight points and a season-high 13 rebounds.
Wichita State struggled from outside the arc, finishing 4-of-16, but shot 41 percent overall. The Shockers’ defense held Oral Roberts to 30 percent shooting and 3-of-11 from downtown.
Two nights after scoring a career-low two points on 0-of-8 shooting, Strong scored the game’s first six points, forcing an Oral Roberts timeout just 1:16 into the game. Following the timeout back-to-back transition scores from McCully and a Seraphine Bastin layup made it 12-0 with 7:36 to play in the first quarter.
Wichita State pushed it to 16-4 only to see Oral Roberts respond with its own 11-0 run to pull within one at the 3:23 mark. Wichita State pushed the margin back to six, 22-16, at the end of the quarter.
A Carla Bremaud trey opened the second quarter, but ORU immediately answered with seven unanswered to tie the game at 25.
After trading baskets Wichita State stretched the lead back to eight over the final 5:30, and would see it get to 10 as the horn sounded following an Ella Anciaux offensive rebound putback.
Strong and McCully scored 12 points apiece in the half, and factor in Bastin’s eight, the trio of Strong, McCully and Bastin accounted for 32 of the Shockers’ 43 first half points.
Oral Roberts put together its second 11-0 run of the game to shrink the lead back to one with 5:28 to go in the third. Back-to-back triples from McCully eventually snapped the drought.
Wichita State would take a 58-51 lead into the final quarter.
ORU scored the first basket of the fourth quarter, but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way. A pair of 6-0 runs pushed the margin back to double digits where it would stay over the final 4:37.
Up Next
Wichita State travels to Vermillion, S.D., to face the South Dakota Coyotes on Saturday at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.