Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 95-71 Victory against Oral Roberts

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STILLWATER — After a bit of a shaky start, the Cowboys rolled to a big win to start the season.

Oklahoma State beat Oral Roberts 95-71 to start Year 2 of the Steve Lutz era. Here are five takeaways from the game.

1. A Career Day (Debut) for Vyctorius Miller

For some reasons we’ll get to, the Cowboys needed someone to step up in the scoring department Tuesday night. A handful did step up, none moreso than LSU transfer Vyctorius Miller.

Miller scored a career-high 21 points in his OSU debut, efficiently going 6-for-11 from the field and 2-for-5 from 3-point range.

In his short time as a Cowboy, Miller has shown a knack for getting to the foul line. He went 7-for-8 from the stripe Tuesday night after getting to the line six times in the SMU exhibition.

Miller was a catalyst for a pair of big runs that pushed this game out of ORU’s reach.

After the Cowboys came out of halftime with a four-point lead, Miller scored the first basket of the second half, which started an 8-0 run.

OSU had a 9-0 run about 11 minutes into the second half, which was started by a Miller 4-point play. He hit a 3 from the corner and got fouled, hitting his free throw to convert.

“Vyctorius has got a real unique offensive game,” Lutz said. “Obviously he can shoot the basketball. He can handle it. He’s very skilled. I don’t want to say he flops, but he certainly makes sure he gets fouled. And when you’re whatever he is — 175, 185 pounds (listed at 190) — and guys are hitting you, you bounce off of them.

“For him to take the next step, I want to put 15 pounds on him. I want him to walk out there and look like Isaiah Coleman and Anthony Roy, and then we’ll have a really, really good player. But, he’s talented offensively, he really is, especially when he takes the right shots at the right time.”

2. Down Some Bodies

The Cowboys won their season opener by a 24-point margin despite being down three guys who will contribute heavily throughout the year.

Anthony Roy, Isaiah Coleman and Lefteris Mantzoukas all missed this game.

Roy is dealing with a groin injury that also kept him out of the SMU exhibition. Coleman sat for a violation of team rules. Mantzoukas wasn’t even on the bench, as he is dealing with a personal matter.

Lutz said he hopes to have that trio back by the time that Texas A&M comes to town on Sunday. He labeled Roy as “day-to-day.”

There’s a chance that those three guys are the best three on the team. There’s perhaps a bigger chance that Roy and Coleman lead the team in scoring by the year’s end, so this was a solid performance, all things considered.

3. A Good Start for the Cowboy Facilitators

OSU’s two primary point guards combined to have 14 assists and three turnovers — that’ll play.

Jaylen Curry, a UMass transfer, stuffed the stat sheet. He scored 13 points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, while bringing in eight rebounds (at 6-foot-1) and dishing out six assists. He didn’t have a turnover. Lutz said after the game that Curry is OSU’s best pound-for-pound rebounder.

Kanye Clary, a Mississippi State transfer, didn’t have his best scoring night, contributing six points on nine shots, but he had eight assists to three turnovers and brought down five rebounds.

The two shared the floor for stretches, and while the Pokes give up some size in that scenario, it looked good on the offensive end. They assisted each other on three occasions.

4. The Centers Feasted, as Well

The ORU bigs were no match for Parsa Fallah and Andrija Vukovic.

The two Cowboy centers combined for 26 points and 12 rebounds on 56% shooting. Fallah, an Oregon State center, is listed at 6-foot-10, 250 pounds, while Vukovic, one of three returners on the team, comes in at 6-11, 270.

On multiple occasions, those guys would pin their defenders under the basket on their post-ups, basically ending the Golden Eagles’ defensive possessions before they even had a chance.

Fallah showed some nice athleticism for a big man. He finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Fallah started the scoring with a nice drive and layup, and in the second half, he had a steal and slam.

STEAL & SLAM pic.twitter.com/FZ0ndoTpjW

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 5, 2025

Vukovic looked as good Tuesday as he did in all of his first season in a Cowboy uniform. He scored 11 points on six shots, brining in four rebounds and had a pair of nice assists. He very much looked like the stereotypical smooth-passing European big. Still a long ways to go, but it was a good jumping off point for Vukovic in Year 2.

“Between the two of them, I thought they had a good stat line,” Lutz said. “I always look at production by position rather than by person. If we can get … 26 (points) and 12 (rebounds). Yeah, I’ll take 26 and 12 out of the center position every single night.”

5. Defensive Consistency a Key Moving Forward

It sounds like Steve Lutz tore into his group at the break, and they responded.

All preseason Lutz has said this team has room to grow defensively, and that showed itself Tuesday night. OSU led 50-46 at the end of an up-and-down first half.

The Golden Eagles made 43% of their shots in the first half. The Cowboys were playing at a break-neck pace offensively, but in the first half it looked like they were more worried about getting the ball out of their own net to get back on offense rather than getting stops.

But after a too-close-for-comfort opening 20 minutes, the Cowboys locked in during the second half.

ORU shot just 22% in the second frame, going 6-for-27 from the field while turning the ball over 11 times.

“Matter of concentration and effort,” Lutz said. “Yeah, a matter of concentration and effort. I thought that we started the game at SMU thinking more offense than defense. We’ve gotta flip that mindset. I’ve said it over and over to you guys, this team offensively, I think’s gonna be OK, but our biggest area for growth is defensively, and obviously you saw that tonight.”

Steve Lutz’s Postgame News Conference

Up Next

Opponent: Texas A&M
Time: 1 p.m. Sunday
Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena
TV: ESPN2