Stailee Heard Crosses 1,000-Point Milestone as Cowgirls Shake Off First Loss

STILLWATER — The face of Cowgirl basketball wasn’t recruited by some colleges because those coaches told her she lacked the ability to score behind the arc.

How fitting then that junior Stailee Heard drained a 3-pointer almost effortlessly with four minutes left in the opening quarter to hit the 1,000 career points milestone.

“If you want Stailee to do something, just tell her that she can’t,” Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt said. “That works pretty well as a coach. So no surprises there.”

Heard has, for a while now, proven those doubters wrong, shooting over 41% from 3 last season when she knocked down 59 total. She even came one 3 away from tying the NCAA’s all-time record for consecutive 3-pointers when Heard drained 13 in a row across three games.

In fact, almost one-third of her first 1,000 points came from made 3-pointers.

Although the final score won’t reflect it, Heard’s milestone shot actually gave the Cowgirls (6-1) their first multi-point lead in the 98-45 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday night.

Heard finished the game with 7 points and a career-high six steals.

“Stailee could care less about scoring,” Hoyt said. “She does because that is what it takes to help us win, but I was more impressed with her six steals tonight, and I think that is where she hangs her hat as well.”

She is now the 26th Cowgirl to hit the 1,000-point milestone, and the first since Natasha Mack did so in 2021. She ranks 25th overall in the record book and needs only 77 points to take sole possession of 19th place all-time.

Heard is averaging a career-low 11.4 points per game to start the year, but that’s likely more reflective of OSU’s added depth this season, taking some of the pressure off the junior.

Last season, Heard averaged just over 12 shot attempts on 32.8 minutes per game. Through the first seven games this season, Heard averaged only eight shot attempts in 23.7 minutes.

“Her work ethic, her competitiveness is just insane,” OSU freshman Lena Girardi said. “When she puts her mind to something, she is going to do it, and I’ve never really seen anything like that. It’s really impressive how much she impacts the game, even if she’s not scoring, she is drawing like seven defenders. She is one of the best players in the country, and it shows every game.”

At the same time, Oklahoma State has now outscored opponents by at least 50 points five times this season while topping 100 points four times. For context, OSU beat five teams by at least 50 points last season and only topped 100 twice.

Senior Haleigh Timmer, a South Dakota State transfer, led the Cowgirls with a season-high 25 points in the victory after she knocked down 5-of-9 3-pointers. She broke her previous season-high with a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer that swished through the hoop so cleanly it was like a movie director scripted it that way.

“She is an elite shooter,” Hoyt said of Timmer. “I know that the offensive game, the last game out, is not really who she is at all. … For her to keep shooting at the clip that she did, I think says a lot about her. … She is tough, responded exactly the way I thought she would.”

Timmer finished 0-of-2 from the floor in Oklahoma State’s lone loss this season, 74-67 at St. John’s on Wednesday. Heard led the way in that one with 15 points. Although three other Cowgirls finished in double figures.

Monday’s performance was more of a team effort with five total Cowgirls, including Girardi, who added 17 points, finishing in double figures, while Amari Whiting added 9.

“We were a bunch of softies at St. John’s,” Hoyt said. “We were soft, there is no other way to say it. The only other way to say it is we were a bunch of poodles and they were pitbulls. And that is what we’ve been talking about all week long. … I thought our response (tonight) was good, but I definitely am sick of having to talk about poodles.”