Kansas City, a 14-point underdog, stuns Wichita State basketball in ‘buy game’ loss
A familiar foe from Paul Mills’ days in the Summit League handed the Wichita State men’s basketball team a stunning loss on its home court on Tuesday.
Kansas City, deemed 14.5-point underdogs, delivered a thorough 74-64 victory over the Shockers at Koch Arena. In turn, Wichita State will deliver an $80,000 check addressed to the Roos in the next 60 days for what is commonly known as a “buy game.”
It wasn’t that long ago when home losses to heavy underdogs were unimaginable in the Roundhouse. But Tuesday’s shocking loss to a KC team that entered with a 2-7 record against Division I competition comes just two years after WSU’s 66-57 loss to Alcorn State, another double-digit underdog who took down the Shockers.
Mills’ last Oral Roberts team needed a buzzer-beating 3 to escape Marvin Menzies’ KC squad in 2023 en route to an undefeated Summit League championship run.
No last-second shot was necessary on Tuesday, as the Shockers hit what felt like rock bottom in what is almost assuredly going to end up as a Quad 4 loss.
Mills had said “urgency” was the buzzword for the team following its road loss to DePaul last Saturday, yet there was hardly any urgency shown in the first half just three days later.
Mills specifically said WSU needed better urgency in closing out on 3-point shooters, but the Shockers lost Kansas City star Jamar Brown beyond the arc multiple times as he had 11 points and three 3s before the second media timeout. Brown finished with 17 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Falling behind 19-9 after 10 minutes could have been written off as a slow start. Except the Shockers were never able to enforce their will on the offensive end. In fact, WSU’s offense looked stuck in mud until it fell behind by 23 points with 5:50 remaining in the game and played with the fire and intensity that was needed much earlier to salvage the game.
WSU managed to rip off a 15-2 run to rally within 63-54 on a Quincy Ballard rebound dunk with 3:43 left, but the Shockers gave up two straight offensive rebounds and then fouled Kansas City’s Babacar Diallo (18 points) on the put-back score. With a chance to cut into the lead, leading scorer Justin Hill air-balled an open 3 — it was that kind of night for the Shockers.
In the end, WSU ended up on Jon Rothstein’s famed list for the “epitome of brutality” — reserved for teams that lose buy games at home.
WSU missed its first 14 shots beyond the arc and didn’t make a 3-pointer until Hill’s shot from the wing nearly 35 minutes into the game. Also not helping the comeback attempt was 11 clanks from the free throw line in a 13-for-24 performance. WSU finished shooting 38.7% from the field and just 15.8% (3-of-19) on 3-pointers.
WSU climbed back to within 21-18 late in the first half, but then watched as the Roos hopped away with a 17-6 rally in the final six minutes to build a 14-point halftime advantage.
Besides their last-ditch effort, the Shockers never made a real run at the lead after halftime. The closest WSU trimmed the deficit before the final minutes was 46-34, then KC dominated the next 10 minutes to build a 23-point lead. The Roos, normally a team that relies heavily on the outside shot, finished the game shooting 52.8% from the field and just eight 3s in a winning performance.
Outside of Xavier Bell’s trusty left-handed shots near the rim, which accounted for the majority of his team-high 21 points, WSU’s dribble-drive offense failed to generate its usual batch of high-quality looks at the rim given the opponent. Kansas City entered the game ranked No. 352 in the country in defensive 2-point field goal percentage, allowing opponents to make 60.6% of their shots inside the arc, but WSU finished just 48.9% (21 of 43) on its 2-pointers on Tuesday — and that’s counting many easy ones at the end.
What was supposed to be the marquee home game of the nonconference slate, bringing K-State to Koch Arena, has lost some of its luster with the Shockers (8-3) riding a 2-game losing streak.
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Kansas City, a 14-point underdog, stuns Wichita State basketball in ‘buy game’ loss."
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