By GoShockers.com
WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State’s home struggles continued Wednesday night with a 72-67 loss to UCF.
The Shockers (12-12, 5-7 American) dropped their third straight at Charles Koch Arena and fell to 1-5 in American Athletic Conference home games.
Freshman standout Taylor Hendricks scored a game-high 23 points for UCF (14-9, 5-6) which trailed by 11 near the 12:00-minute mark of the second half before mounting a 16-2 run.
Craig Porter Jr. paced the Shockers with 19 points and seven assists and Jaron Pierre Jr. paired 14 points with a team-high eight rebounds. James Rojas (12 points) and Jaykwon Walton (11) also finished in double-figures.
WSU lost despite outshooting UCF 51.1% to 38.1%.
Both sides totaled 24 field goals but UCF manufactured 16 extra attempts (63-47) helped by 18 Shocker turnovers and a 15-7 advantage on the offensive glass.
The Knights also made 12-of-32 threes, including 8-of-16 after halftime. WSU was just 4-of-16 from long range
Hendricks was 7-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-5 from deep. Ithiel Horton added 14 points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting while Darius Johnson (12 points, seven rebounds) accounted for seven of UCF’s 13 steals.
It was the Knights’ first Wichita win in six American era visits.
The Shockers dunked four times and piled up 14 fast break points in an entertaining first half.
Porter hit a go-ahead three just over 5:00 into the game and WSU spent the next 27 minutes playing from in front.
Pierre scored 12 first-half points on 5-of-6 shooting, capped by a three that sent the Shockers into the half with 36-30 advantage.
WSU forced 10 UCF turnovers in the first half but just three more the rest of the way.
Porter’s driving layup pushed the margin to 11 points – 52-41 – with 12:06 remaining, but then things quickly fell apart.
The Shockers turned the ball over on six of their next 10 possessions. Over that stretch they managed just two shots and were 2-of-4 at the foul line.
UCF capitalized with a 16-2 spurt. Hendricks sank a go-ahead three with 7:21 remaining and Johnson followed it immediately with a steal and layup for a 57-54 Knight lead with 7:03 to go.
WSU regained the upper hand with just under 5:00 left when Porter snatched a long rebound and found Pierre streaking ahead of the defense for a slam and a 60-59 Shocker lead.
UCF scored the next seven points.
Kelly sank the last of 12 UCF treys to make it a three-possession game with less than 2:00 to go.
NOTABLE:
WSU topped 50% from the field for the fifth time this season. That’s the most by a Shocker team since the 2017-18 season. That year they did it 11 times in 33 games.
Five dunks matched WSU’s season-high. Walton had three of them to run his team-best total to 18.
With seven assists Porter pushed his season average to 4.1-per-game. He’s the only player in the nation averaging at least 4.0 assists, 1.0 block and 1.0 steal-per-game.
UP NEXT:
The Shockers continue their homestand Sunday afternoon against SMU (3 p.m. CT, ESPN2).
