Kenyon Giles put on a show as he connected on eight 3-pointers and scored 28 points, leading Wichita State to a dominant 96-70 victory over Oklahoma State in the second round of the NIT Sunday night in Stillwater, Okla.
Giles shot 8-of-16 from long range while four others finished in double figures. Karon Boyd and Michael Gray Jr. scored 13 points apiece, Dillon Battie added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Dre Kindell chipped in 11 for the Shockers (24-11), who are in the NIT for the 15th time in program history.
Christian Coleman’s double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds wasn’t enough for the Cowboys (20-15), who also got 19 points out of Kanye Clary.
Any thoughts of the Cowboys getting a boost from the return of three of their top players from a suspension in the opening round, including leading scorer Anthony Roy, didn’t pan out.
Roy, the team’s leading scorer, was limited to seven points, well below his average (17.2), Vyctorius Miller tallied eight points and Isaiah Coleman managed two.
Oklahoma State didn’t score in the 3:05 of the first half but took its first lead of the day at 47-46 on a layup by Coleman with 17:07 remaining.
Tied at 48-48, Giles hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 6-0 run as the Shockers pulled in front 54-48 with 14:40 left.
Battie’s layup at the 11:25 mark stretched the Wichita State lead to double digits at 61-51. Giles all but sealed the deal for the Shockers when he connected from 3-point range for the fifth time, extending the lead to 68-53 with 9:21 left.
The two teams were meeting in the NIT for the second year in a row after the Cowboys won last year’s matchup 89-79.
Giles did his best to make sure history didn’t repeat itself, drilling back-to-back 3-pointers in the span of 29 seconds to propel the Shockers to a 10-2 lead with 15:21 to go, the first of the two going down on a shot from the OSU logo.
The Cowboys did themselves no favors in trying to erase the deficit, missing eight consecutive shots from the floor before Benjamin Ahmed ended the drought to cut the Wichita State lead to 15-6 with 13:31 to play.
The Shockers held a lead of 24-10 midway through the first half but the Cowboys were only down 32-26 with 5:13 to go after Roy drilled a 3-pointer.
A 12-2 run for the Cowboys got them within 34-31 with 3:42 left but the Shockers weathered the storm and led 44-37 at the half thanks to a 3-pointer from Boyd with 14 seconds left.
