HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. _ The nation's longest home winning streak was put to an end by the nation's best road team during the last five seasons.
Great offense trumped great defense on Sunday afternoon, as No. 19 Wichita State survived some final-second drama to defeat No. 5 Cincinnati 76-72 at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky. WSU snapped Cincinnati's 39-game home winning streak and registered its first regular-season win over a top-5 opponent since 1967.
The race for the American Athletic Conference championship is now wide open. Cincinnati (23-4, 12-2 American) has dropped back-to-back games and its three-game lead has dwindled to one over WSU (21-5, 11-3) and Houston (21-5, 11-3) with four games left. WSU will host Cincinnati at Koch Arena in the regular-season finale on March 4.
Landry Shamet led WSU with 19 points, while Shaquille Morris (13 points) and Austin Reaves (12) both scored in double-digits. Jarron Cumberland led Cincinnati with 18 points, while Jacob Evans and Cane Broome each added 16. WSU shot 52.9 percent from the field, made eight 3-pointers, and scored at 1.17 points per possession _ the second-best mark this season against Cincinnati's defense.
It didn't come without drama, as WSU's eight-point lead with 1:23 remaining shrank to two after Cincinnati's press popped the ball out from Shamet's grip and led to a Tre Scott dunk to trim WSU's lead to 72-70 with 13 seconds remaining.
But after a timeout, WSU ran the perfect in-bounds play that had Shamet throw a baseball pass to the other end for an Austin Reaves lay-up. Cincinnati answered back with a bucket of its own, but Shamet again quickly broke the press and found Morris streaking for a dunk to close out the game.
After only grabbing one offensive rebound in the first half, WSU grabbed five of the first seven possible offensive rebounds to begin the second half. The Shockers used those second chances to reel off a 7-0 run to quickly establish a nine-point lead.
WSU's lead would grow to as much as 11, then Cincinnati trimmed it to 62-59 with seven minutes to play. But the Bearcats would only have one possession where it could have tied the game, as Jacob Evans' open three-pointer missed with 6:39 remaining.
Cumberland could have cut WSU's lead to two with 4:15 remaining, but Morris slid over across the lane and swatted his shot into the hands of Markis McDuffie. Eight seconds later, Reaves was finishing on a driving layup to extend WSU's lead to 67-61.
Cincinnati would come within four once, but never closer. Willis made a free throw with 2:00 remaining, then made a fallaway jumper with 1:23 left to extend WSU's lead to 72-64 and set up the final-minute drama.
Cincinnati led the nation in defensive efficiency and rated as the fifth-best defense college basketball has seen in the last two decades by statistician Ken Pomeroy's metrics. Not that you could tell by the first half in which WSU shot 60.9 percent, made 5 of 9 3-pointers, and scored 42 points in 35 possessions.
The teams traded momentum waves in the first half, WSU led 42-40 at halftime and Shamet had 16 points.
WSU started the game on an 11-4 spurt, thanks to 3s from Shamet and Zach Brown, but Cincinnati roared back with a 13-2 run to take back the lead. The Shockers would respond with their best prolonged stretch of the game, outscoring the home team 19-4 over the next five minutes to command a 34-23 lead.
Markis McDuffie led the charge with seven points during the run, while Morris scored twice on three-point plays and Shamet drilled a pair of 3-pointers.
But the Bearcats would get their raucous crowd back involved in the game with a 17-6 run to tie the score before a pair of Shamet free throws gave WSU the two-point advantage at halftime.
It was the first meeting between the former Missouri Valley Conference rivals since 1981.
