Shockers blow by Lipscomb in Mills-era debut

WICHITA, Kan. (GoShockers) – Four Shockers finished in double figures, and Wichita State University led nearly wire-to-wire in a 76-59 win over Lipscomb Monday night to open the 2023-24 season.

Head coach Paul Mills saw his offense blitz the Bisons in his Wichita State coaching debut. Wichita State (1-0) has won 27 of its last 28 home openers and improved to 29-2 in season openers since 1992.

Colby Rogers scored 18 of his 20 points before halftime in his Shocker debut. He was 8-for-17 from the field and grabbed six boards in 32 minutes. Isaac Abidde came off the bench and dropped a career-high 13 points and five rebounds and was nearly perfect from the floor (6-for-7).

Quincy Ballard made his first career start and registered his first career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards. Kenny Pohto came up one point shy of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.

Xavier Bell added 12 points and a career-high five assists.

Harlond Beverly, Dalen Ridgnal, and Jacob Germany made their Wichita State debuts, while Joy Ighovodja, Trevor McBride, and Henry Thengvall all saw their first collegiate action.

Wichita State dominated the undersized Bisons, outrebounding Lipscomb by 18 and won the battle in the paint by 16. The Shockers made 47.7 percent of their attempts overall despite shooting 3-for-13 from beyond the arc.

A low turnover game saw the two teams combine for 19 turnovers (9 – Lipscomb, 10 – Wichita State).

Right off the opening tip, just 11 seconds into the game, Wichita State executed a perfect alley-oop between Beverly and Ballard to get the Shockers off and running.

Lipscomb grabbed its only lead, 11-9, at the 13:24 mark, but Wichita State quickly seized control, going on a 13-4 run to force a Lipscomb timeout. Out of the timeout, Wichita State scored six straight to take a 28-15 lead.

With 5:15 remaining in the half, Rogers caught fire. The redshirt junior scored seven straight points behind a layup, turnaround jumper and transition pull-up three-pointer. His torrid first half saw him finish with 18 points in the half and helped the Shockers build a 44-31 halftime lead.

“The three wasn’t falling at first, so I decided to get closer to the basket, and there was some smaller guards, so I figured I can shoot over them, and I found success with that, and my teammates kept finding me telling me to be aggressive continue to attack shots kept falling, and I finally hit a three Ike found me in the corner shoutout to Ike so just seeing one go in just attacking from there,” said Rogers.

“You saw the fatigue setting in, but I do appreciate his willingness to just battle through that. I didn’t think anyone played above their level for what we’ve seen. To be honest with you, I’ve seen Colby have much higher levels of what he showed tonight,” said Mills.

Lipscomb threatened a comeback bid just over 7:00 minutes into the second half when the Bisons trimmed the lead to nine. On the next trip down, Abidde drained a corner triple to push the margin back to 12 and effectively put the game away.

Abidde’s career night included two highlight dunks that brought the Charles Koch Arena fans to their feet.

New era

It’s a new era for these Shockers as they begin their first season under Mills, who has previously talked about how he believes in the potential of this year’s team and this program moving forward. Mills says there is a standard he is building with this team, and it’s one they don’t budge on as a program.

“So there is a standard that we all have and how we have to conduct whatever responsibilities these people have asked us to so so the standard isn’t changing, and accountability isn’t changing so they know going into it that this is what we have to measure up to we don’t think it’s I’ve seen every player I’ve ever coached eventually get there sometimes the guys who can figure it out early they usually have a better chance to get on the court,” said Mills before the game.

Mills has a strategy for this year’s team.

“We do need to do simple. Well, we don’t need to overthink it. We don’t need to complicate it, especially early games. I think there’s times where you can have different options and different opportunities as you move forward in the year. What we have to do is dominate the simple. Let’s be really good at simple things that we are suppose to do,” said Mills.

Monday’s opener wasn’t about Lipscomb, though. It was about the new look Wichita State is featuring a talented backcourt led by Andover Central alum Xavier Bell and Colby Rogers, who is finally playing in the black and gold after being forced to sit out last season as a two-time transfer.

“Yeah, I was just anxious, just ready to play. Now it’s just more so, I mean, it’s season time. It’s going time now. So you gotta look at it as, like, you know, there’s no excuses. You gotta go out there and perform, and that’s my only goal. To go out there and perform,” said Rogers.

“I feel like we just gotta stay locked in and understand our goals and our roles. I think everyone comes in each and every day and does what they need to do to get better and help the team. So just knowing that and just trusting ourselves and trusting the game plan the coaches give us, and just going out there and executing it,” said Bell.

“Koch Arena is special. It’s continually considered one of the top 10 college basketball ball environments, so when you have 363 schools that do this, you can be in a city that supports Shockers and Shockers everywhere. I told them it’s not only our job for them to support us. But it’s our job to support the city. Our responsibility is to play well. We need to make sure to do it at a level that people appreciate,” said Mills.

Up Next
Wichita State returns to the Roundhouse on Thursday vs. WKU at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.