Mills’ trust in his players led to Shockers’ thrilling win over Memphis

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Wichita State Shockers made a statement on Thursday with a 71-65 win over the Memphis Tigers, but it wouldn’t have happened without head coach Paul Mills trusting his players.

Wichita State led by as many as 14 points in the contest, but a three-minute scoring drought allowed the Tigers to claw back in the game and even take a 58-57 lead late in the second half.

Mills said after the game, the team wasn’t shaken, and he trusted his guys to secure the win.

“We don’t sit over there going, ‘oh, three minutes without scoring,'” Mills said after the game. “You don’t really think about it. All you’re doing is thinking about the quality of the shot. I thought we had them. I just told guys, ‘keep taking those. We’re going to make them.’ But those are shots you can’t turn around and pass up. They were quality shots, and at the end, you trust your guys. You trust them to make free throws. You trust them to make plays. That’s what happened late.”

Shockers guard Colby Rogers, who hit a contested three late in the game to give the Shockers a four-point lead that would eventually lead to the win, said taking care of the ball down the stretch was vital.

“It’s a 40-minute game, and we had to learn that the hard way,” Rogers said. “There was a couple possessions late where we could have turned it over and we didn’t. We ran the clock out, got a good shot. Whether we made it or missed it, just the fact that we didn’t turn it over and ran a good offense, had good possessions, kind of demoralized their defense when they were running and jumping.”

Fellow guard Harlond Beverly said drawing on the previous two contests helped propel the Shockers to the win, too.

“I feel like the two games prior to this mattered just as much,” Beverly said. This is just for the tournament. We learned a lot those first two games, and I feel like what we learned in those first two games really propelled us to help us win today.”

Wichita State’s next matchup is a quarterfinal clash with Alabama-Birmingham on Friday at 2 p.m. That game will air on ESPN2.