Taylor Eldridge breaks down Wichita State’s 76-60 win over Austin Peay

Hey guys, Taylor Eldridge here with the Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com. I'm at Coke Arena where Wichita State just improved a 3-1 with a 76-60 victory over Austin Peay. And imagine before this game, if I told you Kenyon Giles was going to finish with zero points, you probably would have thought the Shockers were going to be in a lot of trouble tonight. Maybe last year's team, not the case this year. They are way more balanced. Paul Mills has repeatedly said we are not a KG-centric team. They proved it tonight. The Governors clearly made it their mission. Anybody but KG was going to beat them. They were sending two defenders his way every single time he touched the ball. In a way, it worked. It held Giles scoreless for the first time since March of 2023. When he was a true freshman at Radford, but in other ways, it opened up so many opportunities for others, and no one exploited that better than Dylan Battee, who kicked down that door like the Kool-Aid man, scored a career-high 27 points with 11 rebounds. Jordan Friesen was excellent with nine assists. Jahari Long added seven assists. You know, it wasn't always pretty, though. This was a game that was a rough watch in the first half. Not looking forward to watching that one back on tape. But WSU found its way in the second half. They still have to clean up the turnovers, you know, 15 for the game. That needs to come down to single digits. But a lot to like, I think, from those last 20 minutes for WSU. And that's a quality mid-major team. This will be a nice win looking back on it in March. Now comes the first real road test of the season for WSU, though. They're going to Loyola Chicago on Wednesday. And assuming the FAA lets my plane leave out of Wichita, I'll have live coverage for you from Chicago on Wednesday. So keep checking kansas.com for exclusive Shocker basketball coverage.