Wichita St. @ South Carolina preview

The last time Wichita State played in Mexico back in 2012, the Shockers came away as Cancun Challenge champions and four months later they were playing in the Final Four. Seven years later, the undefeated Shockers are hoping for history to repeat itself as they prepare to square off with South Carolina on Tuesday in one of two semifinal matchups of the Cancun Challenge.

Sophomore Jamarius Burton scored 14 points and freshman Tyson Etienne added 12 to lead a Shockers bench unit that accounted for 37 points during a 68-59 victory over Oral Roberts on Saturday. “Defense carried the day,” Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall told the media. “Thirty-two percent is what we gave up and 13 percent from 3. That’s got to be in your back pocket because on nights where you give up 13 offensive rebounds and on nights where the ball doesn’t go down, you can still win.” South Carolina got all it could handle from a winless Gardner-Webb squad Friday as freshman Jermaine Couisnard tallied career highs of 16 points and six assists off the bench to carry the Gamecocks to a 74-69 victory. After scoring a season-low eight bench points in their only loss of the season Tuesday – 78-70 to Boston University – the Gamecocks’ second unit bounced back with 32 on Friday led by Couisnard and sophomore Alanzo Frink, who scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting in 18 minutes.

TV: 6 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network

ABOUT WICHITA STATE (5-0): Center Jaime Echenique played in his first game of the season Saturday after missing four weeks with a broken hand and while sophomore Morris Udeze was an admirable fill-in (14.5 points on 12-for-16 shooting in two starts), the Shockers are happy to have last year’s leading rebounder (6.0 per game) and shot blocker (51) back in the lineup. “He was playing some great basketball before he broke the hand,” Marshall told reporters. “He didn’t want his first minutes in Cancun. He wanted to get a little prep, and we needed him.” Erik Stevenson flirted with a triple-double against Oral Roberts as the sophomore totaled eight points, eight rebounds and nine assists and has a team-best 18 helpers on the year with only two turnovers.

ABOUT SOUTH CAROLINA (4-1): Sophomore AJ Lawson matched Couisnard with a team high 16 points Friday and has improved his averages from 13.4 points and 2.9 assists per game as a freshman to a team-best 17.2 points and 3.8 assists this season. It was a milestone night Friday for senior forward Maik Kotsar as he grabbed his 500th career rebound as part of his team-high six boards while also chipping in eight of his 11 points in a tightly contested second half. The Gamecocks swatted a season-high nine shots against Gardner-Webb and got career-best block totals from sophomore Justin Minaya (four) and freshman Wildens Leveque (three blocks in 10 minutes).

TIP-INS

1. Wichita State has not allowed an opponent to shoot 40 percent in a game this season while South Carolina enters the week ranked ninth nationally with a field goal percentage defense of 34.2.

2. The Shockers finished last season second-to-last in the American Athletic Conference with a 31 percent success rate from 3-point range but are second this year, shooting 36.1 percent from beyond the arc. Their five newcomers are hitting 39.7 percent.

3. Kotsar finished Friday’s game with 503 career rebounds – 194 of which have been offensive (38.5 percent).

PREDICTION: Wichita State 66, South Carolina 60