(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference fans are used to seeing the bruising and tenacious defense of Wichita State dominate games, and now a national television audience and the Arizona Wildcats have been re-introduced to it Thursday.
Eleventh seeded Wichita State upset sixth seeded Arizona 65 to 55. It was the lowest scoring output of the season for the Wildcats, who average 81 points per game, and the Shockers forced 19 turnovers.
Ron Baker
Fred VanVleet had five steals to go with his team-leading 16 points. Ron Baker scored 13 and handed out six assists. Conner Frankamp and Markis McDuffie came off the bench to score 10 points each.
The Shockers are 9 and 3 over the past four years in NCAA Tournament play and raised this year’s overall record to 26 and 8.
By defeating a higher seed from the 11 spot, the Shockers give the MVC their sixth first round upset win from the 11th or worse slot in a bracket since 1994. Wichita State is one win from an unprecedented third Sweet Sixteen in the last four years.
After the game VanVleet said playing defense was made easier by the sound defensive positioning by the Shocker forwards and praised the bench players, like McDuffie and Frankamp for their contributions to Thursday’s game and the entire season.
Next up for the Shockers is a Saturday game with Miami. The third seeded Hurricanes defeated Buffalo 79-to-72.
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