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Wichita State 80, Evansville 58
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[March 08, 2014]
ST. LOUIS — No. 2 Wichita State 80, Evansville
58: Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker scored 17 points apiece as the
unbeaten Shockers surged past the Aces in the quarterfinals of the
Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis.
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 Tekele Cotton and Chadrack Lufile each had 11 points for Wichita
State (32-0), which will play Missouri State in Saturday's
semifinals. MVC Player of the Year Fred VanVleet collected nine
points, five assists and four steals as the Shockers became the
fifth team in NCAA Division I history to attain a 32-0 mark.
MVC leading scorer D.J. Balentine finished with 31 points to pace
Evansville (14-19), which shot 36.8 percent in finishing below .500
for the first time in four seasons. Egidijus Mockevicius tallied 11
points and 11 rebounds in defeat.
The Aces took a 20-19 lead on Jaylon Brown's jumper with just over
eight minutes left in the first half before Wichita State began to
assume control as Early's four-point play seconds later ignited a
21-7 burst. Balentine's late 3-pointer made it a 10-point deficit
for Evansville at the half and another early in the second half cut
the Shockers' lead to 44-36.
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However, the Aces would go almost seven more minutes until their
next field goal and VanVleet had seven points in a 17-3 outburst
that made it a 22-point game with less than 12 minutes to go.
VanVleet had his fourth steal moments later before feeding Nick
Wiggins for a dunk on the break and Evansville never got closer than
19 down the stretch.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Shockers are one win away from matching Indiana
State's 1978-79 start of 33-0 and two short of UNLV's record 34-0
beginning in 1990-91. ... Balentine took 14 of his team's 16
3-pointers, making seven of them. ... Wichita State C Kadeem Coleby
finished with six points and six of the Shockers' MVC
tournament-record 11 blocked shots.
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