FORT WORTH, Texas — Wichita State produced some of its best play, but also some of its worst.

The Shockers went toe-to-toe with the 16th-ranked team in the country, but in a game with such a thin margin for error, WSU’s mistakes proved too costly to overcome in an 83-80 loss to top-seeded Memphis in Friday’s quarterfinal game in the American Athletic Conference Tournament at Dickies Arena.

WSU had no answer for the AAC Player of the Year, as P.J. Haggerty scored a career-high 42 points, and made a few too many mistakes along the way that spoiled what otherwise was an inspired effort. WSU was led by 19 points from Bijan Cortes, who hit a career-high five triples and doled out five assists.

It remains to be seen if the loss brings an end to WSU’s season, as the Shockers fell to 19-14 overall — one win short of their first 20-win season since 2020.

Here are three takeaways from Friday’s game:

1. Mistakes spoiled an inspired comeback bid

Taking down a nationally ranked team twice in the span of a month is a difficult task.

The Shockers made the challenge an even more uphill one with some of their mistakes in the second half.

Like when WSU turned the ball over on an in-bounds pass that led directly to a Memphis basket at the other end for a second time. Or when WSU failed to secure a defensive rebound on a missed free throw and an air-ball shot, which both times were converted into second-chance points for Memphis. Or when over-dribbling turnovers led to more fast breaks for the Tigers and easy scores.

All of those mistakes contributed to WSU falling into a 72-61 hole with 6:34 left in the game. But the Shockers still managed to mount one final charge at the lead.

Quincy Ballard scored back-to-back baskets, Bijan Cortes hit a career-high fifth 3-pointer, then Ballard blocked a shot and Xavier Bell scored at the other end to trim Memphis’ lead to 74-70 with 3:32 left.

WSU came close to cutting into the deficit even further, as Ballard tipped in a miss but it was ruled to still be in the cylinder following a review. It proved to be a huge momentum swing, as Tyrese Hunter drilled a 3-pointer (again on a second chance) at the other end following the call.

WSU again rallied, as Memphis missed a bonus free throw and Bell made four straight free throws to trim the deficit to 77-74 with 54 seconds left. But Haggerty scored a floater at the other end to put Memphis up by five with 31 seconds left.

Bell again made a pair of free throws to come within 79-76 with 26.4 seconds left, then Hunter answered with a pair of his own with 20.3 seconds. Bell again was fouled and made two free throws with 12.4 seconds left, but Memphis again answered back with a pair of Haggerty makes.

Ronnie DeGray III scored a put-back to trim it again to three, 83-80, then with 2.1 seconds left, Memphis turned the ball over on the in-bounds with Colby Rogers fouling Harlond Beverly to send him to the foul line for two shots with 1.1 seconds left.

Beverly missed the first and intentionally missed the second with Memphis grabbing the rebound.

2. Memphis reversed the rebounding advantage

When WSU knocked off Memphis in overtime at Koch Arena last month, the Shockers used 19 offensive rebounds to score 18 second-chance points.

In Friday’s game, Memphis completely bottled up what is typically is WSU’s biggest advantage.

The Shockers were limited to just eight offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points, as Memphis dominated the glass with 14 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points of its own.

During its six-game winning streak in February, WSU thrived when its trio of “crashers” — Corey Washington, DeGray and Ballard — could relentlessly attack the glass when a shot went up. But Memphis is the rare team in the conference that could match WSU’s aggression. It also didn’t help that Washington was limited by foul trouble throughout the game.

When WSU absolutely needed a rebound, it failed too many times to secure one. Memphis scored a crucial 3-pointer by Hunter with 2:09 left to go up 77-70 on a second chance, then grabbed another offensive rebound the ensuing possession to help ice its win.

3. The first 20 minutes were a war

Wichita State landed quite the opening punch, scoring 20 points in its first 10 possessions and cashing in on all four of its 3-pointers.

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was forced to call a timeout not even six minutes into the game, as Cortes swished yet another triple to put the Shockers up 20-10 on the nation’s 16th-ranked team.

Falling behind that by that many that early brought out the desperation in the Tigers, as they cranked up the pressure and made WSU feel the heat with their defense. Within three minutes, Memphis had whittled its deficit to 20-19.

From there, it was an entertaining back-and-forth battle between the two teams that featured a little bit of everything — highlight-reel plays, fouls that aggravated both sides, costly turnovers and tremendous shot-making.

From a WSU perspective, the highlight of the first half once again belonged to center Quincy Ballard. The big man even sparked a reaction from the pro-Memphis crowd with his block on an alley-oop dunk attempt by Moussa Cisse, then ran down the court and slammed home a follow-up dunk within seconds.

©2025 The Wichita Eagle. Visit at kansas.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.