The Wichita State Shockers handed the Colorado State men’s basketball team their first home loss of the season on Saturday, 82-67, in front of the largest crowd Moby Arena has seen this season.
While the game didn’t turn out the way most of the 6,918 people who piled into Moby on Saturday would’ve hoped for, they had to be impressed with the play of the Colorado State guards.
Sophomore Prentiss Nixon and redshirt sophomore J.D. Paige both put on a show in the Rams’ loss that knocked them to 6-2 on the season.
Nixon, who finished with 20 points, kicked off the scoring for the Rams with three-pointer on the Rams’ second possession of the game, but he would do most of his damage later in the game.
As they’ve done all season, the Rams have had no trouble passing the baton from night to night. Tonight it was the guards turn to step up and carry the load.
“Me and Jeremiah got hot early and we just rolled with it,” Nixon said following the loss. “Last game the bigs were doing their thing in the first half early, and we just kept going to them. I mean, whoever has the hot hand we’re going to keep going to ya’ll again.”
Despite Nixon heading into the locker room at halftime with five points, and Paige with six, it appeared to be junior guard Devocio Butler’s night from the get-go.
Butler, along with Wichita State’s big man Shaquille Morris led all scorers with nine points at the half, but it was how Butler closed out the half that caught everyone’s eye. Butler knocked down a buzzer-beater from half-court that ended an eight-minute field goal drought for the Rams and cut the Shockers’ lead to 34-31. Butler finished with 12 points and four assists.
Just as he did in the first half, Nixon kicked off the scoring in the second half with another three-pointer, something the Rams would ultimately need more of to beat a Shocker team whose only two losses have come to No. 10 Louisville and No. 24 Michigan State.
Just when the Rams needed someone to step up, J.D. Paige and Prentiss Nixon took over early in the second half.
Nixon went 4-5 from beyond the arc in the second half, and finished the night 5-6 from that same range. While the Rams didn’t come out with the victory, Nixon left with a little bit more confidence than he entered with.
“My stats show that I haven’t been shooting it well throughout the season, but they tell me everyday just step up and knock them down with confidence,” Paige said. “I think tonight helps a lot.”
Paige also had himself a big second half, finishing with 11 of his 17 points coming later in the game.
The Rams would ultimately need more than just Prentiss Nixon to be on fire from behind the arc to keep up with a Wichita State team that shot 13-27 from deep. The Rams shot 7-18 from the three-point line, with Nixon and Butler accounting for the seven that fell. The 13 three-pointers combined with 19 turnovers proved to be more than the Rams could handle.
“You look at our two losses and we’ve had a total of 39 turnovers,” head coach Larry Eustachy said.
“It came down to turnovers,” Nixon said. “It doesn’t matter how deep you go, if you turn the ball over 19 times you’re not going to win.”
Despite the loss, Eustachy was encouraged with not only what he saw from his guards, but with his team.
“I think we’ve got a great base defensively,” Eustachy said. “Our offense will not be a 19 turnover team and I love the potential of this group of guys.”
The Rams will look to get back on track on Tuesday when they take on Arkansas-Fort Smith at 7 p.m. at Moby Arena.
