by Don Mooney
FORT WORTH, Texas — Wichita State used a big second half to put away Tulsa, 81-63, Thursday evening in American Athletic Conference Championship first round action at Dickies Arena.
Craig Portr Jr. became the first Shocker ever to record a point-assist double-double in a conference tournament game, finishing with 10 points and a career-high 11 dimes in 28 turnover-free minutes.
Kenny Pohto (13 points), JAron Pierre Jr. (13), James Rojas(13) and Jaywon Walton (11) also reached double-figures for sixth-seeded WSU (17-14), which advances to Friday’s quarterfinal round and will take on No. 3 seed Tulane at just over 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
WSU shot 56.9% from the field to Tulsa’s 40.7%. Tim Dalger scored a game-high 21 points on 5-of-8 three-point shooting for No. 11 seed Tulsa (5-25), which finished the year on a 12-game losing streak.
Up 30-25 at halftime, the Shockers made 17 of their first 21 shots to start the second half and extended their lead to as many as 26 points down the stretch.
“We came out in the second half and we just focused on fundamentals: defending, rebounding, playing with toughness, playing inside-out,” head coach Isaac Brown said. “I thought our veteran guys — Rojas, Craig Porter Jr – those guys took control of the team. We built up a lead and we held on at the end with our young guys defending, rebounding, and playing with that same type of toughness.”
WSU matched its season-high with 48 points in the paint, making 24-of-33 shots (.730).
The Shockers scored the first 10 points of the game and led wire-to-wire, avenging last year’s first round loss to the Golden Hurricane.
