Field Level Media
Jan 17, 2018
Shake Milton scored 33 points and Jahmal McMurray added 16 as hot-shooting SMU shrugged off a ragged start and rolled to a 83-78 victory over No. 7 Wichita State on Wednesday in American Athletic Conference play at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
SMU built a three-point lead at halftime into a 13-point advantage on a 3-pointer by Milton with 4:33 to play. Wichita State answered with an 8-1 run over the next three minutes to cut the Mustangs' lead to 77-73 and got to within 81-78 on a layup by Darral Willis Jr. with 14 seconds to play. But SMU made its free throws in the final seconds to secure the victory.
Ethan Chargois added 12 points for SMU (13-6, 4-3 AAC) while Ben Emelogu scored 10 for the Mustangs, who halted a three-game losing streak. SMU hit 30 of its 47 shots (63.8 percent) in the game and was 16 of 23 in the second half.
Landry Shamet's 20 points and 10 assists led Wichita State (15-3, 5-1), Shaquille Morris scored 17, Willis hit for 12 and Conner Frankamp added 11 for the Shockers, who saw their seven-game win streak end.
SMU outshot Wichita State 58.3 percent to 48 percent in the first half and led 35-32 at halftime. The Mustangs utilized a 15-point swing in the middle of the half that turned a six-point deficit into a nine-point lead with 9:40 to play in a half that featured two ties.
Milton led SMU with 12 points in the half while McMurray added 10. Morris paced Wichita State with 11 points and Shamet had nine in the first half for the Shockers.
Wichita State cut the SMU lead to 48-47 with 12:39 to play but the Mustangs responded with an 8-0 run -- with six of those points by Milton -- to assume their largest advantage of the game at 56-47 with 10:39 remaining.
Next up for Wichita State is a game at Houston on Saturday morning while SMU returns home for a contest against Tulane on Saturday afternoon.
--Field Level Media