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No shock here: No. 4 Wichita State downs Evansville, now 27-0

Feb 17, 2014 - 1:07 AM Evansville, IN (SportsNetwork.com) - Ron Baker totaled a career-high 26 points and Fred VanVleet added 18 to go with eight assists and five steals, as No. 4 Wichita State remained unblemished with a 84-68 victory over Evansville on Sunday.

Cleanthony Early contributed 13 points and seven rebounds with Tekele Cotton having 12 points for the Shockers (27-0, 14-0 MVC), who take on Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday.

Wichita State became the first squad to begin a season with 27 straight wins since Illinois in 2004-05.

Egidijus Mockevicius was perfect from the field and the free-throw line, picking up 19 points and a game-best 10 rebounds for the Purple Aces (11-16, 4-10), losers in five of their last six.

D.J. Balentine sank three triples en route to 19 points in defeat.

A three from the right wing from VanVleet pushed WSU in front 65-55 with 7:52 to play, but Balentine countered and a Mockevicius basket made it 65-60 with 6:11 to go.

That's as close as the hosts came to toppling their conference rival.

Cotton hit a layup and VanVleet added two free throws for a nine-point spread, and though Duan Gibson and Balentine sank consecutive baskets for a seven- point margin with 3:18 remaining, Baker ripped off seven straight points to provide WSU a 78-64 edge less than two minutes later that wrapped up the contest.

VanVleet's layup capped an early 7-0 burst and gave Wichita State a 15-10 edge.

An 8-0 run later provided a 32-23 lead for the visitors after Chadrack Lufile stripped David Howard and raced in for an easy bucket.

The Shockers led 38-32 at intermission, then kept the pressure on at the outset of the second half with an 11-3 surge to go up 49-35 after a VanVleet runner.

Game Notes

The Shockers have put together the second-longest winning streak by a MVC team next to the 1978-79 Indiana State squad, which won 33 straight en route to a national title game appearance vs. Michigan State ... WSU has won 24 of 40 meetings with Evansville ... Mockevicius went 7-of-7 on field goals and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe ... The Aces committed 18 turnovers but dished out 20 assists in the loss.