Men’s NIT: #6 Wichita State v. #5 Lipscomb

Who will WIN this matchup?

#6 Wichita State Shockers (22-14)

#5 Lipscomb Bisons (28-7)

Current odds:

Wichita State Shockers: (-105)

Lipscomb Bisons: (-115)

• The line for this game is even.

• Wichita State secured three road wins in seven days over Furman, Clemson and Indiana to become the first team in the NIT’s 82-year history to sweep the top three seeds in its region en route to the semifinals. With a spot in the championship game on the line, the Shockers are now set to face Lipscomb on Tuesday at New York’s Madison Square Garden as the Bisons prepare for their first neutral site contest of the season after producing a nation-best 14 true road wins. The Shockers started their American Athletic Conference schedule with a 1-6 record (8-11 overall), but have reeled off 14 victories in their last 17 games as freshmen Dexter Dennis (AAC all-rookie first team), Jamarius Burton (freshman school record 1.86 assist-to-turnover ratio), and Erik Stevenson (21.8 minutes per game as the sixth man) continued to improve throughout the season when they acclimated to the competition.

While the Shockers returned only 11.2 percent of their minutes from last season, Lipscomb saw more than 90 percent of its offensive production return after the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance a season ago and has won 19 of its last 22 contests, including a 94-93 victory at North Carolina State last Wednesday. “We’re a good team. We’ve won big road games already,” Bisons coach Casey Alexander told reporters after they became the seventh program to reach the NIT semifinals through three road victories. “We have a lot of experience and every time they came over to the huddle they thought they were going to win.”

Dennis set a career-high with six blocks – all in the first half – during the Shockers’ 73-63 quarterfinal victory over Indiana on Tuesday and has nine in his last two games after swatting just nine during his first 32 contests. With 123 assists this season, Burton is three away from passing Joe Griffin (1986-87) for the most helpers by a freshman in the program’s history. Senior Markis McDuffie, the Shockers’ leading scorer (18.3), reached the 20-point plateau for the 13th time this season during the win over the Hoosiers as he hit four triples en route to a team-high 21 points.

Senior guard Garrison Mathews, who earned Atlantic Sun Player of the Year honors while scoring a conference-best 20.6 points per game, dropped a career-high 44 points on N.C. State including an 8-for-13 performance from downtown. Junior point guard Kenny Cooper – Lipscomb’s third-leading scoring (10.6) – finished with 12 points in the victory including the eventual game-winner with 1.7 seconds remaining. The Bisons rank in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense (84.0), scoring margin (plus-13.9) and assists (17.6).

Wichita State is one of just four programs that have won 22 or more games in each of the last 10 seasons – along with Duke, Kansas and Gonzaga.

Mathews’ 2,421 career points leave him nine shy of passing North Florida’s Dallas Moore for the second-most points in Atlantic Sun history – trailing only Willie Jackson of Centenary (2,535).

The Shockers have held their three NIT opponents to a tournament-best 62.7 points per game while the Bisons have averaged 89.7 points in their three games – tops in the 32-team field.