WICHITA—Morris Udeze's perfect shooting night lifted Wichita State past Emporia State, 73-57, Friday night at Charles Koch Arena.
The junior from Houston made all seven field goal attempts – five layups and two dunks -- on his way to a career-high 18 points and matched another personal-best with three blocks. His only miss came at the foul line, where he went 4-for-5.
Udeze becomes just the 11th player in school history to go 7-for-7 or better and the first in over 15 years. P.J. Couisnard was 8-for-8 against Maryland Eastern Shore in a 102-46 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 17, 2006.
Wichita State (3-2) improved to 34-0 in regular season games against non-Division I schools going back to 1973 when the NCAA separated into three tiers.
WSU out-rebounded Emporia State 52-36, helped by 25 offensive rebounds – most by a Shocker team since Dec. 30, 1999 when they also grabbed 25 at Indiana State.
Tyson Etienne scored 14 points on 4-of-9 three-point shooting and added four assists and two steals in 22 turnover-free minutes. The sophomore has committed just two in 142 minutes for the year.
Ricky Council IV chipped in 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.
Alterique Gilbert snagged four of WSU's 10 steals.
Jumah'Ri Turner scored 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting for Emporia State, which treated the game as an exhibition.
Udeze scored 14 of his 18 points before halftime, sinking all six field goal tries, and the Shockers used runs of 8-0 and 11-0 to build a 45-26 halftime advantage.
Coach Isaac Brown went deep onto his bench, using 15 different players. Jaden Seymour and Chaunce Jenkins each made their Shockers debuts and logged 13 minutes apiece.
WSU shot just 37 percent from the field, including 8-of-29 from three.
ESU finished at just under 38 percent but connected on just 21 of its 26 three-point tries.
The Shockers led wire-to-wire for the second straight game and led by as many as 26 points with 3:45 to go.
ESU knocked 10 points off the lead in garbage time.
NOTABLE:
- Craig Porter Jr. made his first career start and registered an assist on the game's first play – an Etienne corner three.
- The Shockers improved to 43-28 all-time against ESU (23-12 in Wichita), including 3-0 since 2013.
- It was their 100th win at Charles Koch Arena since the start of the 2013-14 season (100-11, .901).
UP NEXT:
The Shockers dive back into conference play Tuesday with a game at USF. Tip time from Tampa is 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) on ESPN+.