WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State shot a season-worst 31 percent from the field in a 79-69 loss to South Dakota State Saturday night at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Wichita State (7-3) has lost its last three games at INTRUST Bank Arena and dropped to 8-5 all-time downtown.

Despite going 11-for-27 from beyond the arc, Wichita State’s offense struggled all night long inside the arc and notably in the paint. Wichita State finished the night 7-for-22 on layups and went 11-for-43 on two-point field goals.

Wichita State grabbed 18 offensive rebounds on the night but only scored eight points on those second chances.

Though Wichita State only had 12 turnovers on the night, they were costly. South Dakota State turned those miscues into 24 points.

Colby Rogers scored a team-high 21 points on 5-of-8 three-pointers. It marked his third 20-point game of the season. Harlond Beverly scored a Wichita State career-high 18 points on a perfect 8-of-8 at the line. He also added six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Xavier Bell added 11 points, but was just 4-of-16 from the field. Kenny Pohto pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds, eight on the offensive end.

Behind a flurry of early three-pointers, South Dakota State grabbed an early 14-11 lead but proceeded to go more than 4:00 minutes without a score. During the drought, Wichita State put together an 8-1 run.

Inside 8:00 minutes left in the half, Wichita State went through a cold spell of 4:52, allowing the Jackrabbits to regain the lead, 30-23, behind a 10-0 run. A Bell corner three-pointer with 2:30 to go finally snapped the run.

That would prove to be the final points of the half for Wichita State, as they would head into the half trailing, 32-26.

Wichita State shot just 26 percent from the field after missing 15 of its final 16 field goal attempts. The Shockers grabbed 12 offensive rebounds but scored five points off those rebounds.

Pohto grabbed 10 first half rebounds – seven of them on the offensive end.

The start of the second half wasn’t much better for the Black and Yellow. Wichita State missed its first three attempts and committed three turnovers. South Dakota State made them pay, scoring eight straight points to take its largest lead, 40-26, forcing a Wichita State timeout.

Harlond Beverly went on a personal 8-0 run to spark some life into the team, but it was quickly negated by the Jackrabbits. Back-to-back triples put SDSU back in front by 14 with 13:27 left.

SDSU pushed its lead to as many as 17 at the 8:19 mark, and it was until a pair of Beverly free throws with 3:30 remaining that Wichita State cut it to single digits.

Wichita State made one final push with less than 2:00 minutes on the clock. Beverly knocked down four straight free throws to make it a seven-point game, but defensive stops didn’t happen. Back-to-back layups pushed it back to a double digit lead under a minute to go, proving to be too much ground to make up.

Up Next
Wichita State concludes its home non-conference portion of the schedule next Saturday vs. Southern Illinois at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.