Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 66-61 Victory against Tarleton State

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STILLWATER — The Cowboys flirted with a little disaster on Wednesday night but found a way to get a win.

Oklahoma State beat Tarleton State 66-61 in Gallagher-Iba Arena. It took the Pokes outscoring the Texans 41-30 in the second half to earn their five-point win. The Cowboys are 7-3 on the season and host Oral Roberts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Marchelus “Chi Chi” Avery led the Cowboys with an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double. It was his first double-double as a Cowboy and the third of his career. Jamyron Keller and Bryce Thompson joined Avery in double figures, as the two returns each had 10. Thompson also ripped down seven boards.

Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Another Rough First Half

The Cowboys perhaps played their worst half of basketball of the young season on Friday against OU in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately for the Pokes, they might have had an even worse half Wednesday.

Oklahoma State went into the break trailing Tarleton 31-25, as the Cowboys shot 24% from the field. In the past two first halves the Cowboys have played, they’ve averaged just 25.5 points while shooting 25% from the field and 17% from 3-point range.

Defensively, the Cowboys might’ve been worse. The Texans shot 57% from the field in the first half, going 4-for-8 from 3. Coming into Wednesday’s game, Tarleton was hitting just 4.3 3s a game. The Texans finished with seven made 3s Wednesday, a season-high.

“If you don’t defend, you can’t get a rebound and you cannot go into transition,” Lutz said. “You’re always getting the ball out of the net. It eliminates your transition game. When you allow somebody to come into your home arena and shoot 56% from the floor in the first half, obviously you weren’t playing very good defense.

“Until we got better in the second half defensively, we’re not gonna give ourselves an opportunity on offense. We’re good in transition, we’re fun in transition, but you can’t play in transition if you don’t defend. That’s gotta be the change of the mindset for our team because they want to play fast. They want to play in transition, but you can’t do that if you’re not gonna defend.”

2. Abou Gets Rolling in the Second Half

Abou Ousmane sort of chuckled in the postgame news conference when asked what Lutz’s message was at halftime. Lutz has some fire to him, so his message was probably loud and clear. And it seemed to particularly work for Ousmane.

He had no points and no rebounds at the break, missing all four of his shots. In the first three minutes and some change in the second half, Ousmane already had four rebounds. And he scored the Cowboys’ first six points of the second half.

When he started controlling the game, the Cowboys felt more in control overall. Ousmane finished with eight points, seven rebounds and three assists — all of that coming in the second half. He’s shown an ability to take over early this season.

3. 3-Point Shooting Is Usually Telling for This Squad

The Cowboys both lived (second half) and died (first half) by the 3-point shot on Wednesday.

It’s 2024 so you could probably say this about just about any basketball team — but — whether the Cowboys are hitting from 3 has oftentimes been a fairly good indicator of whether the Pokes win or lose. After shooting 35% from deep against Tarleton, the Cowboys are now 6-0 in games they shoot 30% or better from deep. In games they shoot below 30%, the Cowboys are 1-3.

OSU went 6-for-12 from deep in the second half, as Khalil Brantley and Chi Chi Avery each hit a pair.

“Unfortunately, males 18 to 23 are … they like to feel good about themselves, let’s just say that,” Lutz said. “So when the ball goes through the basket, they feel better about themselves and they play harder defensively. The flip side to that is when you’re not putting the ball in the basket, you can’t let your defensive discipline and your effort wane on the other end. Obviously, that’s been an issue for us.

“We shoot the ball at a pretty good rate in practice. I really do believe that the numbers, hopefully, will even out.”

4. Keller Starts

In an (unsuccessful) attempt to avoid a similar crummy start like the Cowboys had in OKC, Lutz changed his starting lineup for the first time in six games.

Out was Devo Davis (who had started all nine of the Cowboys’ games entering Wednesday), and in was sophomore Jamyron Keller. Keller earned eight starts as a freshman under Mike Boynton last season, but this was his first this season.

Keller finished with 10 points on seven shots, going 4-for-4 from the foul line. He was also a team-best +17 in plus/minus, meaning the Cowboys were 17 points better than Tarleton with Keller on the floor.

“Devo has done nothing wrong,” Lutz said. “Devo’s played well. As I told them after Bedlam, we were gonna kind of see who played well in practice the next couple days, and I thought that Jamyron played as well as anybody. Our starting lineups are fluid, and Devo’s such a great teammate. … In those huddles tonight, he was the most energetic, cheerful, rooting his teammates on. It was fun to see.”

5. Andrija Vukovic Makes Second Appearance

Things were so sideways during the first half that Lutz turned to Serbian freshman Andrija Vukovic to make just his second appearance as a Cowboy.

Before Wednesday, Vukovic’s only minutes of the season came against Tulsa with the game already well in hand for the Cowboys, but he checked in with about a minute left in the first half against Tarleton. After just 14 seconds (one offensive possession), Vukovic subbed back out. But then after the Cowboys were on defense, he came back in and made a layup shortly before time expired. He made a brief appearance in the second half, as well.

“Me and (Avery) talk about it all the time, honestly,” Ousmane said. “Like he came in here not being able to make a sprint — having to redo it and redo it — to see him actually being able to produce, play hard and play our brand of basketball, it’s beautiful to see. I’m happy to see his transition the next few years coming up.”

“And he’s playing against guys like us every day,” Avery added. “So, we’re pushing him hard in practice. Don’t think we’re not.”

“And he doesn’t back down, either,” Keller said. “He never backs down. I can say that about Mili (Vukovic), he never backs down.”

Steve Lutz’s Postgame News Conference