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DAVIDSON — Joe Ragland scored 30 points and No. 24 Wichita State shot a blazing 80 percent from the field in the second half to break open a tight game and beat Davidson 91-74 Saturday.
Ragland, a senior, hit 11 of 14 shots from the field and all five free throws to finish one point shy of his career high set earlier this season against UNLV.
Toure' Murry scored 16 points and Carl Hall added 13 points off the bench for the Shockers (24-4), who have won 22 of 24.
Wichita State only led 39-38 at the break, but hit 20 of 25 shots from the field in the second half, many of those coming on easy transition buckets and drives to the lane. The more athletic Shockers scored 58 points in the paint compared to Davidson's 28 to give coach Gregg Marshall his 300th career victory.
Despite persistent foul trouble that only allowed him to play 19 minutes, Jake Cohen scored 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting to lead Davidson (20-7).
The Shockers led 51-50 six minutes in the second half when Hall made a shot in the lane.
Davidson got out of their game offensively from there, throwing up some bad shots that led to three straight easy transition baskets by Murry, David Kyles and Demetric Williams on consecutive possessions, allowing the Shockers to open a nine-point lead. About a minute later Cohen, who played only seven minutes in the first half, picked up his fourth foul with the Wildcats down by eight points.
Davidson couldn't stop the bleeding until it was too late.
Within a span of six minutes the Shockers had opened a 23-point lead and held on to earn a quality win that Williams thinks will help them make the NCAA Tournament.
Greg Stutz, Wichita State's 7-foot center, was held to eight points and had five rebounds.
Wichita State was certainly aware that Davidson was capable of pulling an upset, even though they were 1-9 against their last 10 ranked opponents. Earlier this year Davidson toppled then No. 12 Kansas on the road and was fairly competitive with Duke before falling at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Cohen, who came in averaging 13.5 points per game, scored Davidson's first 12 points of the game to keep the Wildcats close early on.
But he was forced to sit most of the first half after picking up his second foul with 12:12 left and Davidson trailing 16-14. However, Nic Cochran picked up the slack scoring 13 points first-half points and Chris Czerapowicz hit a pair of 3-pointers to keep the Wildcats within one at the break.
Czerapowicz had 17 points and Cochran finished with 16 for the Wildcats.
