The Wichita State Shockers kicked their time off in The Bahamas on a high note, routing the LSU Tigers 82-47 in their quarterfinal match of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
The Shockers offense fired on all cylinders, as they blasted the Tigers with hot shooting out of the gate. That quick start allowed them to take a 46-19 at the half on 44.7 shooting from the field.
“I thought we played pretty well,” said Shockers head coach Greg Marshall. “We got some good shots off of our sets and we competed on the glass
against a bigger team, so we have to continue to do that as the tournament goes on.”
The Shockers played 16 players in the win and got points from 12 of those players.
“The team is long, athletic, they play hard and they’re very coachable. We’re pretty young and inexperienced, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to compete. And that’s exactly what we did. They went out hard from the jump, built a big lead and the reserves took care of business in the second half.”
Landry Shamet led the way for Wichita St. with 16 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 3-4 from behind the three-point line.
“We executed pretty well. Our timing is getting better and we;re really getting used to playing with each other,” said Shamet. “You can’t attribute the growth to one thing, because it comes over time. And I honestly think that we still aren’t where we need to be as a team yet.”
The Shockes defense was also impressive in the win. They forced LSU to commit to 13 turnovers and held them to just 28.1 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from the three-point line.
Antonio Blakeney led the way with 12 for the Tigers.
With the win, the Shockers move to 5-0 on the season, while the Tigers drop to 3-1.
