HOUSTON (GoShockers.com) – Harlond Beverly scored a game-high 16 points and Ronnie DeGray III grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds to lead Wichita State in a 63-59 road win at Rice Thursday night in Tudor Fieldhouse.
Wichita State (18-12, 8-9) snapped a two-game skid and has now won four of its last five road games to end the regular season.
Beverly scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, marking his second straight 16-point outing. Xavier Bell finished with 13 points – 11 in the second half. DeGray had a career night on the glass, grabbing 16 rebounds, including six offensive, to go with seven points. Quincy Ballard blocked four shots to go with six points and seven rebounds.
Neither team lit the world on fire, offensively. Both teams shot less than 40 percent from the field and they combined to shoot 6-for-34 from beyond the arc. Wichita State was 2-for-14 and Rice finished 4-for-20.
Wichita State committed only eight turnovers and was plus-10 on the glass.
A slow start for Wichita State allowed Rice to take an early 8-2 lead just minutes into the game.
Wichita State slowly but surely got its offense on track behind 11 straight points from Beverly. His own personal 8-0 run turned a two-point deficit into a 21-14 lead with 7:01 left in the half.
Two Rice free throws briefly stopped Beverly’s run, but the Shockers came right back with consecutive scores from Quincy Ballard and Beverly to give Wichita State its largest lead of the half, 26-16.
The Shockers would hold a 28-21 lead with 4:11 left, but the Owls would climb back in by scoring seven of the final 10 points to make it 31-28 at halftime. Beverly’s 12 first half points led all scorers, as Wichita State shot 44.8 percent from the field. Rice would miss 11-of-12 three-pointers and shoot just 35.5 percent overall.
Wichita State stretched its lead to nine right off the bat out of halftime after scoring the first six points. At the 12:46 mark the margin was 10 and momentum on Wichita State’s side, but the Owls got an uncontested dunk and back-to-back three-pointers to pull within three, 48-45.
The final 10 minutes would be a defensive slugfest. Wichita State would never relinquish the lead, but never lead by more than six down the stretch.
With 5:31 to go, Wichita State led 58-55 and neither team would score until the 2:54 mark when Rice split a pair of free throws. Both teams went another 1:37 before Rice pulled within one on another 1-for-2 trip to the line.
Finally after going 4:52 without a score, Bijan Cortes dumped in a floater to put the Shockers up 60-57 with 51 seconds left.
A DeGray free throw pushed it to four with 7 seconds remaining. Rice would race down and convert on a goaltend with 1.5 seconds on the clock. An immediate foul on the inbounds sent Bell to the line where he swished both to ice the game.
Up Next
Wichita State hosts Tulsa in the regular season finale Sunday, March 9 at 1 p.m. for Senior Day in Charles Koch Arena.
