WICHITA, Kan. -- Wichita State defeated the College of Charleston 82-75, in front of a sellout crowd of 10,506 Wednesday night to advance to the semifinal of the NIT Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Shockers will play the winner of the late game tonight, Northwestern or Washington State, in the semifinal at 6 p.m., central time, on March 29 and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

For the game, four Shockers scored in doubles figures led by senior forward Gabe Blair with 16 points and he added a team-high eight rebounds.  J.T. Durley had 14 points and Joe Ragland had 12 points.  Toure' Murry added 11 points and a team- high five assists.

College of Charleston was led in scoring by guard Andrew Goudelock who had a game-high 31 points with a game-high seven three pointers.  Donavan Moore added 19 points for the Cougars.

In the second half, WSU extended its lead to 13 at the 17:03 mark on a Murry layup, but a pair of treys by Hall and Goudelock kept the Cougars within nine, 45-36, at the 15:31 mark.

A Durley driving bank shot put WSU up by 13 again at the 14:51 mark, while a David Kyles' trey at the 13:46 mark put WSU up 17 before a Ben Smith putback pushed the Shocker lead to 19, at 56-37.

The Shockers then out-scored the Cougars, 10-3, over the next 1:55 to take a 61-40 lead into the 12-minute media timeout at 11:06.

The Cougars cut the lead to 10 at the 5:25 mark with a 10-3 run, before Ragland drove the baseline for a reverse layup to extend the lead back to 12. C of C continued to melt away the Shocker lead, but WSU hit its free throws over the last two minutes and a break-away dunk by Blair off the in-bounds helped seal the Shockers' trip to the semifinal.

In the first half, both teams battled back-and-forth to four lead changes and five ties through the first 7:22 to a 13-all tie before WSU took the lead 15-13 on a Joe Ragland layup heading into the eight-minute media timeout for the sixth lead change at 6:58.

The teams traded the lead two more times before WSU went on a 11-2 run with six points from Blair to take a 30-21 lead at 2:54 left in the half.

C of C bounced back after a called timeout to cut the lead to five on a dunk from Hall and a three-pointer from Goudelock heading into the final media timeout of the first frame at 1:37.

Hatch pushed the WSU lead back to 33-25 with a three from the right corner at the 1:21 mark.

Ellis stretched the lead to WSU's largest at 35-25 after WSU got into the bonus on a Cougar rebounding foul with 28 seconds remaining.  Murry got a steal on the ensuing possession and dished to Ragland for a layup with one second left in the half to take a 37-25 lead.

Wichita State outrebounded C of C 32-27 and the Shockers shot 19 of-21 (90.5%) from the free-throw line.

-WICHITA STATE-