By Dylan Edwards, SMUMustangs.com
It's difficult to find a more adverse situation than the one SMU found itself in on Wednesday night in Wichita, Kansas. On the heels of three-straight losses, the Mustangs needed a victory to get back on track against consensus top-10 team on the road in a building where they essentially never lose.
Just six minutes into the game, the task became even more difficult. While driving to the basket, Jarrey Foster tweaked his left knee. A key cog in SMU's team was lost for essentially the entire game. The Mustangs, led by Shake Milton's career night, proceeded to control the game and give the No. 7 Shockers their first loss at Koch Arena in two years.
"Could we have any more adversity?" head coach Tim Jankovich said. "Everett (Ray) was injured so we were down a man. Five minutes into the game, Jarrey is out, so we're down two. To do what those guys did, it's unbelievable. I've been saying this from day one. I believe in the character of these guys. We might be shorthanded. We've had a lot of injuries, and we've had some illness. These guys somehow still fight their way. That was amazing, and I'm really proud of them."
Obviously, SMU's performance would not have been possible without Milton's hot hand, scoring a career-high 33 points. The Owasso, Oklahoma, native was outstanding in the first half but somehow took it to another level in the final 20 minutes despite never subbing out of the game. Milton hit 7-of-8 shots from the field, was an unblemished 3-for-3 from 3-point range, and was perfect on his four free throw attempts. He even turned his one missed shot into a positive for the Mustangs, as he grabbed the offensive rebound and earned an and-1 opportunity.
"He's a great player," Jankovich said. "He grabbed the moment. He knew what he had to do. He knew he had to take the game over. We talked about it before. He was going to have to control the game."
Wichita State, one of the nation's top defenses, had no answer for Milton. Whether he was hitting shots from well beyond the 3-point arc or near the basket, everything was just falling as he willed SMU to a huge victory to snap the three-game slide against a team that was undefeated in conference play.
"We needed a perfect night," Jankovich said. "That's why not many people have won there. We ended up getting a perfect night, other than Jarrey … For them to do what they did, I don't know if they're getting enough credit for it. Given all the numbers and the injuries and illness and what they did with what we had, it was amazing."
Even shorthanded, the Mustangs and Milton proved that the Mustangs can knockoff any team in any building when things click on the right night. Wednesday night in Wichita was one of those nights.
"It's something you can build on," Milton said. "You take what we did last night, the mindset that we had, the focus, the execution, and we try to apply that to every game moving forward."
