Wichita St. @ Southern Methodist preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 30, 2019 ) Southern Methodist 83, Wichita St. 85

Wichita State will aim to become the first American Athletic Conference team ever to reach eight conference wins after starting the season 1-6 when it visits SMU on Sunday. Shockers guard Samajae Haynes-Jones hit a game-winning buzzer-beater Thursday to lift his squad to a 65-63 triumph over Connecticut and help head coach Gregg Marshall earn his 300th win with the program.

“I feel like (Haynes-Jones’) shot was the tip of the iceberg on how blessed I have been as a coach,” Marshall told reporters Thursday after his team’s sixth win in eight games. “I’ll definitely remember No. 300 at Wichita State.” Haynes-Jones tallied a team-high 20 points against UConn and his shot as time expired gave the senior his second game-winner of the season, following his deciding bucket with one second remaining in an 85-83 Shockers victory against SMU on Jan. 30. Despite holding No. 22 Cincinnati to a season-low 26.6 percent shooting from the field (17-for-64), SMU suffered its seventh defeat in its last eight games Wednesday as it dropped a 52-49 decision to the Bearcats. “If you tell me we’re going to hold a Top 25 team in the country to 26 percent shooting, any team in the country to 26 percent, I’ll take that for the next 1,000 games that I’m involved in,” SMU head coach Tim Jankovich told reporters. “To play that well defensively and lose, that’s really heartbreaking to me. You deserve to win when you play defense like that.”

TV: 2 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network

ABOUT WICHITA STATE (14-13, 7-8 American): The Shockers overcame a dismal 24 percent first-half shooting performance Thursday thanks in part to sophomore Asbjorn Midtgaard, whose career-high four blocks all came in his 14 second-half minutes. Jaime Echenique had two of his team’s season-high seven rejections Thursday and leads the Shockers with 1.59 blocks per game. Dexter Dennis finally cooled off after going 11-for-16 from 3-point range in his previous two games as the freshman finished with just four points Thursday on 1-for-7 shooting from the floor.

ABOUT SMU (13-14, 5-10): The Mustangs’ defensive effort Wednesday was much-needed as they were coming off a 95-48 blowout loss to Central Florida on Sunday - the worst defeat in program history. Jahmal McMurray had a team-high 27 points in Wednesday’s loss – the first time since 2005 that a Mustangs player has scored at least half the team’s points. Jimmy Whitt Jr. is third on the team in scoring (12 points per game) and first in rebounds (6.6), assists (4.1), and steals (1.4).

TIP-INS

1. Wichita State ranked 289th out of 353 Division I programs shooting 65.6 percent from the free-throw line during non-conference play but have hit a league-best 76.4 percent during American play.

2. SMU’s four seniors – McMurray, James Pyle, Nat Dixon and Jarrey Foster – will be honored Sunday as the Mustangs play their last home game of the season.

3. Echenique set a career-high with five blocks during the Shockers’ Jan. 30 win against SMU.

PREDICTION: Wichita State 80, SMU 75