Wichita St. @ East Carolina preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 11, 2018 ) Wichita St. 95, East Carolina 60

Wichita State will look to post its first true road win of the season in its seventh try on Wednesday, when it visits an East Carolina squad that has lost six of its last seven contests. For the first time during American Athletic Conference play, the Shockers recorded consecutive victories when they handed Tulsa a 79-68 defeat on Saturday.

With his team trailing 60-52 with less than 11 minutes remaining in regulation, Markis McDuffie - Wichita State’s leading scorer (18.9 points) - rallied his teammates during a timeout and spearheaded a 27-8 run that closed the game and secured the comeback victory. “What I liked about (McDuffie) was the leadership,” Shockers coach Gregg Marshall told reporters. “That was not a fun timeout, but he grabbed them by the bootstraps at that point and said, ‘We’re not going to lose this game,’ and made sure of it with some tremendous plays.” ECU managed to hit just 33 percent of its shots in Sunday's 76-52 setback against Connecticut, including a 4-for-15 performance from 3-point range – the Pirates’ third-best accuracy rate from beyond the arc since the start of league play (26.7 percent). “(UConn) swarmed the ball, and we’re obviously not a great 3-point shooting team,” ECU coach Joe Dooley told reporters after his team fell to 0-8 in true road games. “We took more bad shots in the first half than we have in the last four or five games.”

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPNews

ABOUT WICHITA STATE (10-11, 3-6 American): McDuffie’s game-high 27 points on Saturday was his highest total since he scored 32 against Providence on Nov. 9 in the Shockers’ second game of the season. Wichita State shot 44.6 percent but allowed Tulsa to hit 53.2 percent of its attempts as the team posted its second straight win while being outshot. The Shockers made up for it by forcing the Golden Hurricane into 18 turnovers and winning the rebounding battle 33-26 – including 13 on the offensive end that led to 15 second-chance points.

ABOUT EAST CAROLINA (9-12, 2-7): Pirates leading scorer Jayden Gardner (18.3 points) was limited to just nine points on 2-of-10 shooting Sunday and is averaging 11.8 points over his last four contests after producing 21.8 during his first five conference games. Gardner recorded a team-high six boards against the Huskies, but the Pirates were outrebounded 44-25 and have pulled down one more rebound this season than the opposition (766-765). K.J. Davis was the only member of the team to reach double digits on Sunday as he scored 13 points while matching his career high with three steals.

TIP-INS

1. The Pirates’ two conference victories have been by a combined three points while their seven losses have been by an average of 20.6.

2. Wichita State G Erik Stevenson recorded a career-high four steals in the win over Tulsa.

3. East Carolina’s 12.3 assists per game ranks last in the AAC and 267th nationally.

PREDICTION: Wichita State 77, East Carolina 64