Instant Recap: Oklahoma State Defeats Southern Illinois 85-78

A first half that was mostly back and forth was followed by a second half full of Cowboy runs, but it still came down to the wire.

Oklahoma State moved to 3-0 after defeating Southern Illinois at home 85-78. The Cowboys didn’t make a field goal over the final 4:23 of game clock, but they had had enough of those big runs late and made the stop or two they needed later to come away with the win.

Oh yeah, and they had to huge performances off the bench.

The Cowboys were down 10-2 after five, thanks to a 1-for-9 start from the field, but the Cowboys were able to climb back into things thanks to their length and size. OSU logged seven steals and sored 15 points off of 10 SIU turnovers in the first half. Then the Cowboys got hot to finish the first period, ending the half making six of seven shots from the field to take a 38-37 advantage into the break.

Three of those were off the hot hands of Brandon Newman, and he didn’t cool off the rest of the game.

Quick draw 2⃣ pic.twitter.com/SPOWQahHgl

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 15, 2024

OSU outscored SIU by 38 in bench points and 36 of those came from two players. Newman and Abou Ousmane each pitched in 18 points off the bench to lead the Cowboys to the win.

Newman went 7-of-9, making three of his four 3-point attempts while Ousmane made his first seven shots, finished 8-for-10 and also added four boards, four assists and two blocks.

Top of the key for threeeeee pic.twitter.com/u0rEG3qcWN

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 15, 2024

OSU created some distance with an 11-0 run to take a 49-39 lead. Then the Salukis answered right back with a 10-0 run of their own to tie it at 49. But the Cowboys were able to pick-pocket their way to success.

The last time the Cowboys logged at least 10 steals in three consecutive games was in the 2021-22 season. They’ve done that in all three games this year. All in all, the Cowboys had scoring streaks of 11, 10, nine and seven points in the second half with many of those haymakers fueled by the aforementioned SIU turnovers. OSU won the turnover battle 18-7 and scored 30 points off those takeaways.

The Salukis didn’t go down without a fight. A 10-0 run cut it to 80-72 with just under two minutes to go. After Jennings made a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 10, SIU’s Davis made a 3. After going up by 18 with 4:23 left, OSU make another field goal, and SIU pulled within four points with 24 seconds on the clock. But Arturo Dean made a pair of free throws with 19 seconds to go to give the Pokes some distance, and then an SIU turnover sealed the deal.

Next up, the Cowboys will have a week off before their first road trip. OSU will face Florida Atlantic in the opening round of the Charleston Classic next Thursday, at 1:30 p.m.