Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 83-62 Loss to Utah

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The Cowboys’ two-game tour of the Beehive State did not get off to a great start.

Oklahoma State lost to Utah 83-62 on Saturday in Salt Lake City. Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Another Tough Night Getting the Ball in the Basket

The live stats had the Cowboys at 9-for-27 on layup attempts, 0-for-2 on dunk attempts (how?) — all while the Cowboys were 6-for-23 from 3-point range. Regardless of what other struggles a team is going through, those numbers are enough to say that team probably didn’t win.

The Cowboys had been a fairly decent team from the foul line this season, but even those weren’t falling, as OSU was 12-for-22 from the stripe.

This performance comes after the Cowboys’ caught fire in a win against Kansas State, shooting 48% from the field and 43% from 3 in that win. OSU has proven capable at putting up some decent shooting numbers at different times this season, but it’s been far from consistent.

2. Utah Didn’t Let OSU Play Its Game

Under Steve Lutz, the Cowboys have looked to create turnovers and get out in transition. Well, the Utes had just 11 turnovers Saturday, among the fewest the Pokes have forced this season.

Those 11 turnovers led to nine OSU points. When the Cowboys beat K-State earlier this week, they turned 19 K-State turnovers into 31 points.

And give credit to the Utes here. Utah came into Saturday ranking second in the country in assists per game, averaging 20.3, while giving the ball away just 11.7 times a contest. Utah sliced the Cowboys up to the tune of 23 assists.

3. Spotting Utah a Dozen Points Certainly Didn’t Help

Utah started this game on a 12-0 run, and from that point on, the game never felt too close.

The Cowboys stabilized things for a while. The Utes’ halftime lead was 37-26, so after Utah poured in a dozen over about the first four minutes, OSU outscored Utah 26-25 in the final 16 minutes of the half.

It wasn’t as extreme as the 32-7 start West Virginia got off to on the Pokes, but the result of OSU getting behind the proverbial eight ball felt similar.

The Utes opened up the game in the second half, leading by as many as 26, but it didn’t feel like the Cowboys had much of a chance after that start.

4. Three Utes Had Season-Highs

The Madsen brothers were likely at the top of Steve Lutz scouting report, and justly so. The Pokes shut the Utes’ two leading scorers down, but the other guys went off.

Gabe and Mason Madsen were held to a combined nine points off 3-for-9 shooting after coming into the night averaging a combined 27.6. But Ezra Ausar, Jake Wahlin, and Keanu Dawes all put up season-highs.

Ausar put up 21 on just 12 shots. Whalin had 16 in a perfect 5-for-5 shooting day. Dawes scored 16 — 10 if those points came on five dunks in a five-minute stretch.

The Utes’ most impressive player might’ve been Lawson Lovering. He scored just eight points, but the 7-footer also tallied six assists. He had five assists on Utah’s first six baskets. He scored the only basket he didn’t assist on during that stretch.

5. Bryce Thompson Got Going a Little Bit

If you’re looking for some good OSU news, Bryce Thompson got going offensively a little bit.

He scored a team-high 16 points, the most he has put up since the Cowboys’ win against Miami on Nov. 22. Thompson’s 54% field-goal percentage was also a team-best.

This game broke an interesting trend from this season. OSU was 8-0 in games where Thompson has scored in double figures this season. That goes to show that usually OSU is better when Thompson is scoring, so maybe this can be the start to Thompson catching a groove.