The Sunflower v.123 i.22

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2018 • VOL. 123, ISS. 21

THESUNFLOWER.COM

WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1896.

First-degree murder conviction handed down in shooting of WSU student Rowena Irani

up to pick her up from work like she normally did.

Two years after Rowena She got a ride from a coIrani was killed, ex-boyworker and came home to friend Dane Owens was find her daughter lying on found guilty of first-dethe ground with a gunshot gree felony murder. wound to her head.

IRANI Irani, a 22-year-old Irani bled out for three Wichita State student and hours before her mother psychology major, was shot came home.

Oct. 3, 2016 and died the next day.

Irani worked at the Wichita On that Monday afternoon, Children’s Home and was attendIrani’s mother came home worried ing her junior year of college because her daughter didn’t show at WSU when she was killed.

BY JENNA FARHAT

At WSU, she was a Student Involvement ambassador and worked at Disability Services, escorting students with disabilities to and from classes in a golf cart.

Irani was still alive when Dane Owens was arrested in connection with the shooting. Owens soon confessed to entering Irani’s home while she was alone, shooting her in the head, taking her cell phone, and leaving. His defense attorney, Kurt Kerns, pushed for a lesser charge of involuntary

Wichita State is seeking support for a “student-driven” plan to upgrade campus facilities by way of an increase in the campus infrastructure student fee.

The proposed hike would allow the university to bond $38.5 million — $20 million of which would go towards the construction of the new business school on Innovation Campus. The plan, which a university press release says “would positively impact all colleges,” is scheduled for a student referendum next March.

The proposal includes infrastructure upgrades within each college — from updating classrooms, offices, and equipment in Wilner Auditorium to creating a larger 24-hour study room in Ablah Library with additional seating and restroom access.

Vice President for Student Affairs Teri Hall said the state of Kansas “will not give any money to universities for buildings.” The proposed plan would require WSU students to pay at least an extra $6 per credit hour. For a student taking 15 credit hours, that amounts to $90 a semester.

The university’s Infrastructure Priorities list says using student funds to make campus improvements “requires serious student support.” State law mandates that a referendum be held, but the results of the vote are not binding.

University administrators would not confirm that the proposal will be abandoned if the referendum fails.

WSU has formed a steering committee of 30 students to take the lead on informing students of and generating support for the project.

Hall said WSU students will have an opportunity to “pay it forward” to future Shockers by greenlighting facility renovations.

PROJECTS

The Wichita State Foundation has raised almost $30 million of

“She just freaked me out and it was almost like a natural reaction.”

Prosecutors said that Owens shot Irani because she broke up with him. Owens, who lived in Manhattan, Kansas at the time while attending Kansas State University, was in the Wichita area the week Irani was shot. He was staying with his parents in Andover while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

SEE IRANI PAGE 3

No drama

WSU rolls out ‘student-driven’ plan to raise student fees, upgrade campus infrastructure

BY MATTHEW KELLY

manslaughter, maintaining that the shot was fired on accident.

Owens is an Afghanistan war veteran who suffers from PTSD. He said seeing Irani when he walked through her unlocked front door holding a loaded gun startled him.

Owens told police that he never wanted to hurt her.

“She just came around and startled me and I just pulled [the trigger],” Owens said to detectives in a tape played in the courtroom.

Shocker women take opener 76-39

the estimated $50 million necessary to construct a new home for the W. Frank Barton School of Business on Innovation Campus. Groundbreaking on the 136,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin in 2019.

Hall said coming up with the remaining $20 million was the impetus for WSU’s new infrastructure plan.

“It started with the funding for the business school,” Hall said.

“It gave us an opportunity to then request more money so we can do other things on campus.”

More than half of the money raised by the proposed fee would go towards construction of the business school. Hall said spreading the burden to non-business students makes sense.

“To just charge business students to pay for the building would be a lot of money,” Hall said. “But I see it as it’s a way to benefit everyone.”

Hall said one of the projects she’s most excited for is centralizing student services in Clinton Hall.

“It will put together in one building key student services so students don’t have to walk all over campus when they need help with something,” Hall said. “Tutoring will be there. Grad school will be there. Student Conduct will be there. Advising can be there.”

Student Body President Kenon Brinkley said all of the proposed projects — from finding a new location for the dental hygiene program to modernizing the university’s supersonic wind tunnel labs — are good ideas.

“All the ideas are good ideas. I don’t think anybody can disagree with that,” Brinkley said. “It’s just a matter of addressing the concerns properly.”

Brinkley is an LAS student majoring in strategic communications. The LAS renovation project is converting the university’s two biology labs into three state-of-theart labs.

SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State senior Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage celebrates from the bench during the season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Wednesday at Koch Arena.

SEE STUDENT FEES PAGE 3

Student Senate recommends WSU outsource veteran benefit certification to VA

BY DANIEL CAUDILL

EASTON THOMPSON/THE SUNFLOWER

Senators Michael Bearth and Ciaban Peterson prepare to speak to Student Senate about veteran affairs. SGA’s weekly public meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in room 233 of the Rhatigan Student Center.

In light of a backlogged GI benefit certification process at the Student Veteran Center, SGA passed a resolution recommending the university outsource the process.

“I believe that the past recommendation for more individuals to work on this matter could be alleviated by a consulting team coming in to help this,” Business Senator Ciaban Peterson said.

Peterson, a U.S. marine, co-sponsored the legislation, which was written by Veterans’ Senator Michael Bearth.

Student senators passed a

resolution at an SGA meeting two weeks ago raising concerns that more than 100 student veterans at Wichita State had not received payments for GI Bill education benefits due to understaffing at the Student Veteran Center on campus.

Friday, the university released a statement saying that three new people had been certified to process veteran benefits and that a new director for the Student Veteran Center had been hired.

If the university were to outsource the process as recommended by the resolution, it would mean utilizing a consulting group comprised of Veteran

Affairs National Office certifiers, as well as the university’s VA educational liaison.

Deanna Carrithers, a representative from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, spoke in public forum at the meeting. This division oversees the veteran center on campus.

She said the division is “in the process of unveiling some new certification processes, but [doesn’t] want to announce anything without all the facts and documentation.”

SEE SGA PAGE 3

INSIDE

FIND YOUR ALBUM

UPSET

SENIOR LEADERSHIP

IFC PR chair writes that The Sunflower focuses only on the negatives of Greek life.

The Sunflowe charts critics’ album of the year candidates to fit your musical tastes.

Men’s basketball drops its first season opener under Gregg Marshall.

Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage scores 21 in opening-night blowout.

OPINION • PAGE 2

CULTURE • PAGE 4

SPORTS• PAGE 4

SPORTS• PAGE 4

NEGATIVE FOCUS

OPINION

2 | THURSDAY, OCT. 21, 2018

www.thesunflower.com

Blue tsunami

THE STAFF EDITORIAL

Editor in Chief Matthew Kelly Digital Managing Editor Andrew Linnabary Visual Managing Editor Madeline Deabler News Editor Jenna Farhat Culture Editor John Darr Sports Editor Evan Pflugradt Photo Editor Selena Favela Sports Photo Editor Joseph Barringhaus

ADVERTISING

Advertising Manager Kylie Cameron

ADVISING

Faculty Adviser Amy DeVault

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Send letters to the editor to editor@thesunflower.com or submit at thesunflower.com. Please keep letters to 400 words or less. All letters are edited for clarity and length. Please include your name, WSU affiliation and a phone number for verification purposes.

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Midterm election precursor for upcoming change in U.S. politics

A

fter months of tireless campaigning and an endless stream of political ads, the 2018 midterm elections have concluded.

With the “blue wave” of Democrat voters reclaiming the House of Representatives and the GOP hardening its grip on the Senate, constituents are anticipating a high level of polarity and divisiveness within the national government.

Closer to home, Kansans decided the 48th governor of Kansas will be Democrat Laura Kelly, Republican Ron Estes will serve a full term in the House of Representatives representing the Fourth Congressional district of Kansas, and Democrat newcomer Sharice Davids will replace incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder to represent the Third Congressional District.

History was made both at the state and national level. But what does this mean for us?

Kelly ran on a platform of reversing the fiscal, educational, and healthcare decisions of the Brownback administration, centering her campaign around being a “champion of kids,” over that of her opponent, Republican Kris Kobach. An upset to some, her election will not only empower the people, it will lend towards creating an educated generation

of future voters, workers, and citizens with open and able minds.

Kelly’s investment in Kansas’ children is an investment in Kansas’s future, and will put the state back on track educationally and economically. However, local Democrats took a hit when incumbent Estes won reelection over Democrat opposition James Thompson.

Thompson, like Kelly, took pride in educating the nation’s youth, and his work in Washington would have exponentially surpassed Estes. Though Thompson was unable to beat Estes for a second consecutive time, Davids made history in her unseating of Yoder. As one of the the first Native American women to be elected into Congress, her election is all the more important, as she will rightly represent Kansas and convey proper educational, healthcare, and fiscal reform in the nation’s capital.

Kansas seemed to shift blue, worrying many about the potential for a bigger, much more impactful “blue wave” in 2020. As most midterm elections do, the parties strengthened their evermore dividing polarity, alluding to tension in Washington and adding pressure on the president to please the now Democrat-held House.

History was not just made

MADELINE SPURLOCK COLUMNIST

at home. The first MuslimAmerican identifying women were elected into Congress (Democrats Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ihan Omar of Minnesota), as well as many other firsts throughout the United States which include, but not limited to, the first female senator from Tennessee (Republican Marsha Blackburn) and the first openly gay governor (Democrat Jared Polis of Colorado).

This historical midterm is a push towards a younger, more diverse Congress that more accurately represents the people of the United States. A record number of women and minority representatives are now seated in the House of Representatives or Senate, but are still an overwhelming minority as a whole. The 2018 midterm election was a precursor for a much larger change in the perception and role of American government in coming years.

Though a slow moving one, it will not be a wave, but a tsunami.

Our Mission

The Sunflower — both in print and online — will be a timely resource of information about the Wichita State University community. It will report on news, issues, activities, academics and athletics, in addition to offering a forum for discussion, reviews and commentary. It will also be an effective learnig experience for students, who will have the final authority over what is published.

Legal

The Sunflower (published for use by WSU students, faculty and staff) is private property and unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable. One copy may be taken for free. Additional copies must be purchased for $1 each. The Sunflower is also partially funded by the Student Government Association at WSU. The opinions expressed in The Sunflower editorials, columns, guest columns, reviews, advertisements, letters and editorial cartoons are not necessarily those of the staff, publications board, student body or university. The Sunflower reserves the right to edit or reject any submission. We also reserve the right to edit or reject any advertisement.

shocker

street speak

What are your takeaways from the election?

CONTACT THE SUNFLOWER 019 Elliott Hall 1845 N. Fairmount Ave. Campus Box 134 Wichita, KS 67260-0134 ----------

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“I’m really happy with the outcome for Kansas itself.

I feel like social media was used to educate people and bring out the younger generation to vote. I think it really did make a difference in the outcome.”

— ALICE AGUINAGA, Nursing, Sophomore

FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/sunflowerwsu TWITTER @sunflowernews INSTAGRAM @thesunflowernews

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

“I think Laura Kelly was the best option. It’s really good for Kansas that she was elected over Kobach, just because of his stance on education. I think that’s what really swung the election.”

—CHASE CLYNCH, English Education, Junior

CORRECTIONS This space is reserved for corrections.

Spot an error? Call us at 316-978-6905.

“The outcome was dissapointing for me, but it is what it is. I feel like I can’t say much about it, because I was unable to make it to my polling place.”

—MICHAEL MALMQUIST, Accounting, Junior

The Sunflower’s Greek life articles consistently ‘highlight the “negative” ’ I write to you today as both a student and a Greek life member here at Wichita State to express a concern that has been on both my mind and the minds of many other people in the Greek community and that issue concerns the perception of Greek life through the eyes of the writers at the Sunflower. It seems, time and time again, articles are released and stories are written from the Sunflower that highlight the “negative” aspects of Greek life from suspensions to sanctions and everything else in-between.

Now don’t get me wrong, I totally agree that these stories should be published being that they are a major part of the culture here at WSU, but the one thing that disturbs me concerns the lack of coverage concerning the positive things that go on within our Greek community here at Wichita State.

This issue has been on both my mind, as well as others in the community, for quite some

LETTER TO THE EDITOR time, but it wasn’t until the most recent issue of the Sunflower article that both misspelled and quoted the wrong winner of Songfest, that I decided to speak out with my concerns. Mistakes happen I completely understand, but the first thing that I noticed besides the errors was the lack of talk about the event itself, the amount of work and dedication that these organizations put in and the impact that this event has on the community itself here at WSU. It wasn’t until then that I started to think of the numerous other events here on campus that have received little

to no coverage; Philanthropy food events, SAE’s Shockerthon (which went onto raise over $43,000 dollars this year), DU’s 24 hour teeter-thon hosted every year, Phi Delt’s ALS kickball tournament, and so many more here on campus received either little or no coverage by the newspaper that prides itself on being a “A resource of information about the Wichita State University Community.”

For organizations that are such an integral part within the university itself, it seems like the coverage of such events is not up to par, and I am not the only one that holds that opinion. In a time where “bad news sells,” establishing a relationship with each respective council PR chair and working together, not against, seems like a relationship that could benefit both sides.

— Colton Russell Intrafraternite Council public relations chair

CULTURE

www.thesunflower.com

FROM PAGE 1

IRANI

FROM PAGE 1 Owens’s roommates testified during the trial, saying Owens always left his guns in Manhattan when he went home to Wichita.

This time, he took his .45 caliber Winchester pistol with him — that’s the gun he admitted to shooting Irani with. Owens’s mother also told detectives that her son typically left his guns in Manhattan.

Before shooting Irani, Owens parked about a four-minute’s walk

STUDENT FEES FROM PAGE 1

Brinkley voiced his skepticism that updating lab facilities is the most pressing issue for LAS. “I think LAS students are fine with our two bio labs in Hubbard Hall,” Brinkley said. “I don’t think adding a third is necessarily our top priority in LAS.”

STUDENT INPUT

Deans from each college came up with a list of infrastructure priorities with input from students, faculty, and staff, the Infrastructure Priorities list states.

Hall said deans went about collecting student input in different ways.

“It varies, but all of them started first with deans talking to students about ‘What are the things that we need to do to improve your experience?’” Hall said.

Hall said there is no hard data available on student input collected by the deans. She said she understands why students may be hesitant to support a fee hike.

“Most people I know aren’t going to willingly say ‘I want to pay 90 more dollars a semester to do something,’ right?” Hall said.

“So at face value, you’re going to just say ‘why should I,’ right? ‘I’m poor. I can’t afford it all.’”

That’s where the steering committee comes in. Comprised of representatives from Student Government and appointees from each dean and Strategic Communications, the committee met for the first time last week.

Brinkley, a member of the steering committee, said he’s not in a position

|3

find your album

SGA

Peterson said that, along with Returning Adult Senator Eugene Potts, some student veterans have already left WSU due to not receiving their GI benefits.

“Effort or no effort, the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Potts said. “I don’t care what your intention is, this needs to be done yesterday.”

Peterson and Potts expressed concerns not only for students currently in the backlog, but for future registrations as well.

During debate over the resolution, Sen. Aaron Mounts took opposition to wording in the resolution that said the university has made “minimal efforts” to solve the issue with a backlogged certification system.

Mounts said that though the resolution addressed an important issue, it was important for SGA to maintain “civility” in its relationship with the WSU administration.

“You want [wording in the legislation] to be confrontational now because the minute a veteran commits suicide because he didn’t get his benefits, you don’t control the narrative anymore,” Potts said. “I understand people have tried, and I appreciate it. But you didn’t try hard enough.”

Potts, also a veteran, co-sponsored the resolution.

The new resolution states that, despite the university’s claims of “significant” reduction of the backlog, only 15 people were certified over a nine-day period.

According to the resolution, there are currently more than 80 individuals awaiting certification, and an anticipated influx of nearly 800 students will occur as registration opens for spring 2019.

“The school has been aware of [GI benefit issues] by previous administrators, by students, student leaders in the SVO (Student Veterans Organization),” Peterson said.

“This wording will put pressure on the school to be able to understand how dire this is.”

THURSDAY, NOV. 8, 2018

The Sunflower matches your tastes with critics’ album of the year candidates

Poppy KACEY MUSGRAVES

ROBYN

MITSKI

JANELLE MONAE KIDS SEE GHOSTS AGAINST ALL LOGIC

BEACH HOUSE

DAYTONA

intense

fun MGMT

ROLO TOMASSI

KERO KERO

JULIA HOLTER

SOPHIE

DEATH GRIPS

DAUGHTERS

weird

away from Irani’s house before going inside.

He said he was afraid that if she saw his car parked in the driveway, she might call the police.

He said he knew he wasn’t supposed to be there.

After shooting Irani, Owens took her cell phone and left.

He didn’t assist her or call for help. Owens then threw the gun and Irani’s cell phone into ponds.

The gun was found but the cell phone was not.

During his testimony, Dr. Timothy Gorrill, chief medical examiner for Sedgwick County,

said “it’s possible” Irani might have survived had she been given immediate medical attention.

Near the time of the shooting, Owens factory-reset his own cell phone, completely wiping it clean of all text messages, call history, photos, videos, contacts, and apps.

During the trial, the jury was shown tapes of Owens’s interviews with the case agent assigned to Irani’s homicide, Detective Robert Chisholm.

At one point in the interview, Chisholm asks Owens what he expected Irani to do when he walked through her door holding

a loaded gun.

“Take me seriously,” Owens said.

Owens’s arrest affidavit states that he told Irani about a previous girlfriend who he dug a grave for after she broke up with him.

In the interview tapes, he admits to telling the story. “I didn’t intend to kill [the ex-girlfriend],” Owens said. “I convinced my brother we were going to dig a grave but it was nothing like this . . . It was one of those joking instances.”

Owens also told police that when he walked into Irani’s home, he could hear Family Guy playing

on the TV. District Attorney Marc Bennett, who was on the prosecuting team, said in his last plea for the jury to convict Owens of first-degree murder: “He (Owens) is in there long enough to not only hear the show — he can identify the show.”

After deliberating for three hours, the jury found Owens guilty of first-degree felony murder and aggravated burglary.

The trial lasted for five days, starting Oct. 31 and ending Tuesday.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 20.

to support or oppose the proposal until he hears from students.

“Until we hear some widespread consensus about how the students feel about it, we’re not going to take any hard positions,” Brinkley said.

He said it’s important that the committee be receptive to dissenting opinions.

“The team that’s tasked with this project, are they allowing for congruent student input to change this, to reject this, to affirm this, to amend this,” Brinkley said. “If that is still the case, excellent.”

what would pass?’”

WSU President John Bardo has the ultimate authority to go before the Kansas Board of Regents and ask for approval of a fee increase. Brinkley said Bardo told him he’s taking multiple perspectives into account when it comes to the initiative.

“When I spoke to the president, he clearly told me that there’s a balance of perspectives that he’s trying to find,” Brinkley said.

“Perspectives between the faculty that think that they own the university and the students that think they own the university.

“The faculty clearly want these changes and the students are saying, “Well, you guys aren’t paying for it so it’s easy for you guys to vote for something that you won’t end up having to pay for.”

getting the public — in this case, the students — to look at a bigger picture than just their immediate four years here,” Kleinsasser said.

told, if this gets voted down, that’s the end of it,” Brinkley said.

Brinkley was still a senator when the 60th Session voted on the second YMCA proposal, but he was on vacation at the time and missed the vote.

Brinkley said that if the infrastructure referendum fails, WSU should not force the fee hike on students.

“If this were to fail and go forward without the will of the students, I don’t think this university would respond very kindly to it,” Brinkley said.

One argument given in 2017 for building a new fitness facility instead of renovating the Heskett Center was that the university was not in a financial position to bond money.

“It would cost anywhere from $11 to 15 million to build on to the Heskett Center, which, like creating a new facility not affiliated with the Y, would require the university to borrow money from a bank,” Tomblin said. “It will probably be 10 years before the university will be in a financial position to bond money.”

Less than two years later, WSU is seeking students’ financial support to bond $38.5 million.

“The university approach to using bond financing remains the same as it was during conversations about the YMCA and the Heskett Center in the Spring of 2017,” Vice President for Finance and Administration Werner Golling wrote in an email.

“In the case of the proposed infrastructure plan under discussion, the university would be able to take on new debt because of the new funding source from increased student fees.”

REFERENDUM

Hall said the March referendum will be run on ShockerSync — the same platform used for SGA elections, which are held in April.

Brinkley said the university wants to hold the referendum before the SGA election so that the infrastructure proposal doesn’t become the central platform of candidates’ campaigns.

Provost Rick Muma said he expects the referendum to pass.

He would not confirm that a lack of support from the student body means WSU will abandon the initiative.

“I can’t speak to whether it will go forward if the referendum fails,” Muma wrote in an email.

Hall said the university would have to reevaluate its options if the referendum failed.

“If the referendum doesn’t pass, it’s because we didn’t put the right package of things together to students to get them to support it,” Hall said. “That would mean we’d have to go back to the drawing board and say, ‘If it doesn’t pass,

PAY IT FORWARD

Hall said this is an opportunity for students to invest in the future of WSU, even if they won’t be around to see all the improvements. She pointed to the renovation of the Rhatigan Student Center as an example of a controversial student fees decision that has paid off in the long run.

“I’m hoping that when we look at all of the things that are proposed to fix, that students can see, not only will they benefit, but others that are coming after them will benefit as well,” Hall said.

“This is an investment in future Shockers and in campus that I hope people are going to care enough about.”

Director of News and Media Relations Joe Kleinsasser echoed Hall’s sentiment.

“The challenge we all have is

YMCA

In the spring of 2017, the university sought student approval to bring a YMCA and updated wellness center to Innovation Campus by way of a student fee increase.

At the time of the original YMCA proposal, SGA was told that if they voted the partnership down, it would not move forward.

“If you do not want it, we’ll mark it off the master plan and we’ll move on,” Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer John Tomblin told student senators. “So I say absolutely, if you don’t want it, then I say move on.”

The 59th Session of SGA rejected the proposal. Two months later, after the 60th Session was sworn in, a similar proposal was approved by the Student Senate.

The YMCA facility is expected to open in early 2020.

Brinkley said the steering committee is WSU’s attempt to show students that their opinions on the infrastructure plan matter, and that no university agenda is being forced on them. “[Committee members] were selected basically to make the idea look good to students because they realize that their rollout for the Y was less than great,” Brinkley said.

Brinkley voted against the YMCA partnership as a senator in the 59th Session.

“I did vote against it at that time under the mind that, as we were

SPORTS

4 | THUSDAY, NOV. 8, 2018

www.thesunflower.com

Shockers drop first season opener in Gregg Marshall’s tenure

BY MARSHALL SUNNER

For the first time under the direction of Gregg Marshall, the Wichita State men’s basketball team lost their home-opener.

Louisiana Tech defeated WSU 71-58 Tuesday night in a game where the Shockers struggled to find rhythm and control the ball.

Here are three observations from the night: SENIOR STRUGGLES

Markis McDuffie and Samajae Haynes-Jones, the team’s two seniors, combined for 20-percent shooting on the night. The duo posted 15 points.

McDuffie, who led WSU in scoring and rebounding his sophomore year, shot one of six from threepoint range and hit just one shot (in four attempts) from the free-throw line. Marshall said McDuffie is “still rushing things offensively.”

“He wants it so badly. He wants to play well,” Marshall said. “He’s forcing things.”

Haynes-Jones, who blossomed in the second half of the Shockers’ exhibition game, couldn’t get much going either against the Bulldogs. He missed all six three-point shots, and made just two shots in 13 attempts from the field.

“He’s going to have to be able to play in the half-court,” Marshall said. “He’s going to have to slow down.”

KHANH NGUYEN/THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State senior Markis McDuffie takes a free-throw during the home opener game against Louisiana Tech Tuesday in Koch Arena.

STEVENSON SHINES

Freshman guard Erik Stevenson was one bright spot for a struggling WSU team.

Stevenson finished with a teamhigh 16 points on 6-9 shooting, which included four pressured

three-pointers.

“He made some deep threes,” Marshall said. “He’s a tough kid.

He got on the floor and was like a greased pig. Nobody could secure the ball, and he did.”

The versatile freshman knocked down two crucial three-pointers that cut the deficit to six to start the second half. His offensive sent fans into uproar.

“In the moment, it was surreal, seeing everyone scream and all that,” Stevenson said. “At the end of the day, that’s not going to amount to the loss that we took.

“No feeling will ever outdo a loss in my book. Losing is one of the worst feelings out there, at the end of the day, I’m not even thinking about that stretch.”

DIDN’T CRASH THE GLASS

Louisiana Tech outrebounded the Shockers 37-26.

Jaime Echenique, a junior college transfer, had seven rebounds in 13 minutes of play. He scored eight points off the bench, but struggled with foul trouble. He had three personal fouls in the first half that limited his play time.

Asbjørn Midtgaard, a sophomore, earned the start at center.

“Midtgaard had three rebounds, (Isaiah) Poor Bear-Chandler played four minutes and had zero rebounds, and (Morris) Udeze played eight minutes and had one rebound,” Marshall said. “That’s 25 minutes between those guys and they come up with four rebounds.

That’s not enough.”

UP NEXT

WSU next plays Friday against Providence in Annapolis, Maryland, as part of the Veteran’s Classic. Tip-off is 5 p.m.

@myShockerHealth @wsu.shs wichita.edu/shs

JOSEPH BARRINGHAUS/THE SUNFLOWER

The Wichita State student section throws up pieces of “The Sunflower” after the first basket of the Louisiana Tech game.

Lozada-Cabbage’s 21 points propel Shockers to blowout win

BY MARSHALL SUNNER

Wichita State didn’t trail for a second in Tuesday night’s matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

The Shockers started the game on a 20-4 run from the tip-off.

With 2:40 seconds left in the first half, the Golden Lions just broke the double-digit point mark after a three-pointer.

Senior Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage scored a career-high 21 points in the blowout win for WSU. LozadaCabbage scored 19 points in the first half, outscoring the entire Pine Bluff offense.

“I’ve got to give credit to my teammates — they were finding me,” Lozada-Cabbage said. “It was my job to finish for them when I got the ball, so all the credit goes out to them.”

WSU Head Coach Keitha Adams said she was pleased with her senior’s performance, but still feels like “she needs to score more.”

“With our team this year, we’ve told her that if she gets the ball in the high post or the paint, then she needs to score for us,” Adams said. “I’ve been on her about that.

She has a tendency of catching and looking to defer first.”

Freshman Jada Peacock provided more offense for the Shockers off the bench — scoring 11 points on 4-5 shooting. She also knocked down three out of four shots from behind the arc.

“I’ve been working on my shot in practice,” Peacock said. “I got some really good passes from my teammates, and they definitely helped my confidence.”

Peacock said she believes the win will “bring more energy” to the locker room.

“It’s big to start out with a win,” Peacock said. “It gets us the momentum we need to get going throughout the season.”

Lopsided victory aside, LozadaCabbage said WSU can't get ahead of itself.

“We just have to stay humble,” Lozada-Cabbage said. “We have to keep working hard. It was a good win, but we just have to go to practice the next day and find out what we can do better.”

The Shockers will look to build a win streak when they take on former Missouri Valley Conference rival Missouri State at 2 p.m. Saturday at Charles Koch Arena.

SELENA FAVELA/THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State’s Carla Bremaud takes a shot duirng the season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Wednesday at Koch Arena.

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

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