TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Ron Baker scored a team-high 14 points, Fred VanVleet tallied eight assists with one turnover and Wichita State put the finishing touches on its third-consecutive Missouri Valley Conference title with an 84-51 win at Indiana State, Sunday.
 
WSU (21-7, 14-2 MVC) leads Evansville and Illinois State by three games with two to play, officially clinching the title. It's the program's 10th regular season crown (most among active Valley members) and fourth in the last five years.
 
The Shockers are just the second MVC team to three-peat in the last 46 years, joining Southern Illinois (four in a row from 2001-05).
 
The 33-point win (WSU's third-straight by 30-or-more points) is their largest margin of victory in 39 trips to Terre Haute. The Shockers have bested their previous standard in four of their eight MVC road stops this year (+26 at Drake, +25 at SIU and +19 at UNI).
 
Ron Baker led the Shockers with 14 points, and had five rebounds and three steals. Markis McDuffie, Shaquille Morris and Zach Brown all added 11 points.
 
Fred VanVleet had nine points and eight assists, giving him 601 career helpers. VanVleet – WSU's all-time assists leader - is just the third player in MVC history with 600 assists and 200 steals.
 
WSU continued a remarkable run by holding INS to 31.0 percent from the field (18-of-58). The Shockers have kept their opponent under 40 percent in all eight of their MVC road games this year.
 
The Shockers held INS without a field goal for over seven minutes during one first half stretch and knocked down 9-of-11 shots during another eight-minute spurt of their own to build their lead to double-digits. Six different Shockers contributed to that rally, led by three Anton Grady jumpers.
 
Baker knocked down a midrange jumper and swished a trey, helping WSU expand a 13-point lead to 20, 41-21, at the 1:23-mark of the first half.
 
WSU led 44-26 at halftime with help from a 50 percent shooting performance (16-of-32). Baker scored 12 of his 14 points before the intermission, McDuffie chipped in nine and Morris added seven.
 
WSU scored the first seven points of the second half. Morris slammed home an alley-oop from VanVleet, then scored again on the next trip down. Evan Wessel's three-pointer made it a 51-26 advantage.
 
Zach Brown shook off a slow first half with eight points in a three-minute stretch. His dunk with 9:21 to play made it 70-37.
 
The Shockers forced 14 Sycamore turnovers and committed just four of their own. In three wins this week, they finished with turnover margins of +17, +8 and now +10.
 
Baker tallied three steals to move into a tie for fourth-place on WSU's career list. His 156 thefts are tied with former teammate Tekele Cotton. VanVleet (211 steals) came up empty and still trails Jason Perez by 11 with two regular season games to go.
 
Up Next:
Wichita State closed out the Valley schedule with two games next week.
 
The Shockers are at Loyola (13-15, 6-10 MVC) on Wednesday night for an 8 p.m. CT tip on Cox Channel Kansas (and over the air on 103.7 KEYN). Fans in the Chicagoland area can catch the Loyola broadcast on Comcast SportsNet.
 
Illinois State comes to town for the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon. The 1 p.m. CT tip can be seen on ESPN2.
 

-Wichita State-