No. 11 Wichita State hopes to rebound vs. Arkansas State (Dec 19, 2017)
No. 11 Wichita State will try to bounce back from a loss to Oklahoma when Arkansas State visits Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan., on Tuesday.
The Shockers (8-2) fell 91-83 to the Sooners on Saturday, snapping Wichita State's four-game winning streak and dropping coach Gregg Marshall's team from No. 3 to No. 11 in the polls.
Wichita State ran into a buzz saw in Oklahoma freshman guard Trae Young. The nation's leading scorer poured in 21 points in the first half as the Sooners built a 15-point halftime lead.
Wichita State got back within six in the second half but couldn't string together enough quality possessions to complete the comeback, despite a 20-point, 12-rebound performance off the bench from Darral Willis Jr.
"It was one of those days where we couldn't sustain the positive plays," Marshall said.
On Monday, Marshall acknowledged his team's shortcomings in the defeat while also praising Oklahoma. He encouraged his team to move forward with a strong performance against Arkansas State.
"Got to get the bad taste out of your mouth," Marshall said at a Monday press conference. "Obviously, Oklahoma was tremendous on Saturday, and we weren't. We've got to play well, hopefully get a win."
Arkansas State (4-7) is coming off a dramatic 64-63 win at Florida Atlantic on Saturday. Rashad Lindsey's basket as time expired gave the Red Wolves their first road win of the season.
"This is a long time coming," Arkansas State coach Mike Balado said after the win over the Owls. "These guys have been resilient and trusting in the process by understanding what we are trying to do. These guys want to win so bad for the community and university, so it's been hard losing these close games on the road.
"I'm glad that we got our first road win, but I'm also glad we did it in this demeanor. We dealt with more adversity tonight because we couldn't buy a free throw for some reason."
The Red Wolves went 7 of 17 from the foul line against Florida Atlantic. Lindsey hit just one of his first nine shots but came through on Arkansas State's final possession.
"That was probably my fourth or fifth career game-winner, but that one felt the best," said Lindsey, a senior guard. "I have to give a big shout out to my team, because they all played well. I made the last shot, but this is about my team. When the shot came, I felt like I hadn't hit a shot the whole game, but my teammates were telling me to stay with it because they believed in me. Deven (Simms) came up to me and said he knew I was going to hit a big shot for us."
Balado added, "Everybody played great tonight and everybody gave something. (Lindsey) didn't have a great game until the last few minutes, but I had confidence in him like I do all these guys, and he stepped up and made the play. I'm happy for our guys because they deserved this win."