ChiefsPlanet - Other Sports **Missouri Valley Conference Title Game Thread**

Wichita State advances to MVC championship game
BY PAUL SUELLENTROP
The Wichita Eagle

ST. LOUIS — It is the kind of play a team that expects to win makes. It’s the kind of play a team that wants to earn its way into the NCAA Tournament makes.

Illinois State went all-in on defense in a desperate situation, trailing by two points with 20 seconds to play after rallying to nearly catch Wichita State. The Shockers needed to make the Redbirds pay by busting the balloon and relieving the pressure, as coach Gregg Marshall said.

So the Shockers went for the home run. Toure Murry passed long to Graham Hatch, who made a contested layup. It took guts and trust, Marshall explained, envisioning the second-guessing if the play fails.

It worked. It worked because the Shockers expected it to, expected to win and expected to play in today’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game. Second-seeded WSU defeated third- seeded Illinois State 65-61 on Saturday.

“I’m not the smartest coach in the world, but I’ve got a lot of faith in these guys,” Marshall said. “Big-time players make big-time plays.”

The Shockers (25-8) proved that over and over again Saturday. Their reward is today’s game against top-seeded Northern Iowa (27-4). The winner takes the MVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It is WSU’s first appearance in the title game since 1987, ending 19 miserable seasons of frustration in St. Louis, the event’s home since 1991.

“We finished second, so we were supposed to be here,” WSU junior Gabe Blair said. “We’ve got expectations, and one of our expectations was to be here.”

These Shockers are unburdened by past failures in Arch Madness. They weren’t a part of most of them, and they play like a team intent on writing a new story in St. Louis for themselves and the 1,500-plus fans who made the trip.

“I think it’s a great thing for the whole Shocker nation,” Murry said. “They’ve been looking to go to a championship.”

They’ve got a chance to win one today, on CBS with Dick Enberg and Bill Raftery on the call. They watched Saturday’s game and saw the Shockers make the crucial plays to hold off the Redbirds (22-10). Illinois State cut the lead to one point five times in the second half. It never took the lead.

“That was the entire second half — how many times we had a chance to change the psychology of the game and were not able to,” Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich said.

Murry led WSU with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Garrett Stutz and Demetric Williams both added 12. The Shockers made 15 of 20 free throws and forced 16 turnovers.

The Redbirds missed 12 of 26 free throws. Center Dinma Odiakosa led Illinois State with 15 points, but he missed eight of his 13 free throws.

The Shockers did much more than watch the Redbirds miss at the line.

J.T. Durley took a charge from Osiris Eldridge with 4:28 to play, opening the door for WSU to add cushion to a four-point lead. Williams did just that with a three-pointer for a 55-48 lead.

Toure Murry’s free throw-line jumper, with the shot clock ticking away, gave WSU a 57-51 lead with 2:06 to play.

Durley put WSU up 58-51 with a free throw with 1:40 to play. He missed the second. Hatch threw himself into the rebounding scrum and tipped the ball to teammate Garrett Stutz. His layup gave WSU a 60-51 lead.

“Graham did a great job getting his guy low and he kept it alive.” Stutz said. “We have sets with the two guys on the free-throw line. We communicated to cross and tried to get under the basket.”

All that almost wasn’t enough. The Redbirds kept pressing and making baskets. They cut a 10-point deficit to two in 59 seconds.

Then WSU hit its home run.

Hatch’s layup gave WSU a 65-61 lead with 16 seconds to play. It changed the momentum after the Redbirds cut WSU’s lead from 62-54 to 63-61 by forcing two turnovers.

In a timeout, Marshall gave Murry the option to throw the pass.

“Graham Hatch, I know he can grab the ball because he’s an athletic player,” Murry said. “So I just threw it, and hopefully he’ll make the catch. I just trust him.”

Hatch saw Illinois State’s Lloyd Phillips hesitate just a moment when Hatch faked toward Murry before running to the opposite basket. Even with that edge, Phillips recovered and made a play on the ball. Hatch caught the pass, protected the ball from Phillips on his way to the basket and scored.

“I saw the ball coming, and I saw Phillips, he saw it, too,” Hatch said. “Toure made a great pass. It landed perfectly in my hands.”

Just like WSU expected.

“It’s been a long time coming for the Shockers,” Marshall said. “Now we have that stage.”