Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 85-76 Loss to Oklahoma

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Steve Lutz had sent out plenty of warnings that the Cowboys’ defensive effort hadn’t been good enough, and it bit the Pokes in an NBA arena against their in-state rival.

Oklahoma State lost to Oklahoma 85-76 on Saturday in Paycom. Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Defensive Struggles Finally Bit the Cowboys

Steve Lutz has not been shy throughout the early portions of this season, saying his team had a long way to go on the defensive end of the floor. That bit the Cowboys at the worst possible time.

OU pick-and-rolls would send the Cowboys into defensive rotations that they just couldn’t navigate cleanly, leading to a myriad of open looks for the Sooners.

The Sooners made 11 of their final 16 shots, something that’s enough to kill nearly any comeback attempt. OU went 13-for-33 from 3, with a lot of those makes being wide-open looks on the end of drive-and-kicks.

After harping on the Cowboys’ defense all year, Lutz said this result better spark something on that end of the floor for the Pokes.

“It better or we’re gonna find some different guys to play,” Lutz said. “That’s where we’re at. We can’t keep doing the same things over and over, saying the same things over and over. You’re not gonna get a different result if you keep doing the same things. Definition of insanity, right? It makes no sense, so we’ve gotta find some guys that are gonna buy into the defensive end, that are gonna be gritty and tough and disciplined and show some heart on a daily basis.”

2. Fallah Limited with Back Injury

Parsa Fallah had an MRI on his back before Saturday’s game that came back clean. He tried to give it a go against the Sooners, but the injury was too much.

After back-to-back 20-point games, Fallah played just 10 minutes — all in the first half — against OU, finishing with no points and one rebound.

“Yesterday, he went down at practice,” Lutz said. “He had an MRI at 11 o’clock. He got back over here. He rested. He got on some meds. The training staff and the doctors did a good job of getting him ready.

“It was, ‘Hey, man, you wanna play?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, of course,’ because Parsa’s a tough kid, and he’s a competitor. He tried. He just didn’t have it. He didn’t have it.”

Fallah wore some sort of wrap during pregame warmups and stretched in the middle of the court as his team went through the pregame layup lines. He still started, but it was evident early that he wasn’t his normal self.

“Would I have loved to have him? Of course,” Lutz said. “He’s been playing really well as of late, but he got hurt. If you’re as good a team as you think you are, you’ve gotta step up and fill that void, but unfortunately, we did not, especially on the defensive end.”

3. Christian Coleman Carried Some of the Slack

With Fallah battling that injury, the 6-foot-8 Christian Coleman got some run at center, a late stretch that sparked the Cowboys into taking a second-half lead.

Coleman finished with 17 points and a pair of rim-rattling dunks in the second half, the first of which gave OSU a 51-50 lead with about 12 minutes to play to play.

Paycom is an electric factory! ⚡️@cc_1era | 📺: FOX https://t.co/6r88t0B0OR pic.twitter.com/aLfva0UOo9

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) December 13, 2025

He scored 16 of his 17 points in the second half, and just about all of those second-half points came while Coleman was the Cowboys’ center.

It wasn’t the ideal scenario to get an extended look at smallball for the Pokes, but Coleman’s length and athleticism makes it to where this look could be more of an option for OSU going forward, especially if Fallah misses any more time.

4. Clary Kept Cowboys Close Late

The result wasn’t there, but it looks like Mississippi State transfer point guard Kanye Clary has the clutch gene on the offensive end.

He stepped into a 3 with 12:19 to play to pull the Cowboys within 3, setting up Coleman’s back-to-back dunks.

Then in the final four minutes, Clary scored five of OSU’s final seven points, all coming off tough takes to the hole where the 6-foot Clary used his change of pace to create some space in the lane before contorting his body and getting tough baskets to fall.

This performance comes after Clary hit a game-clinching 3 in Phoenix last weekend against Grand Canyon.

He finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-for-13 shooting to go with three rebounds and four assists.

5. First Bounce-Back Opportunity

For the first time this season, we’ll get to see what this OSU team looks like coming off a loss.

Perhaps dropping a game to your in-state rival in front of a lively crowd will be enough to spark some defensive improvement.

“I don’t think it should ever come down to that,” Clary said. “You should want to go out there and play for coach and the rest of the staff and fans and just go out there and play defense and take pride in getting stops. But, hopefully the loss does spark the team to play better defense.”

The team needs to bounce back, and so does the crowd.

For much of the game, it felt like OSU fans had Sooner fans outnumbered in Paycom. With the Pokes unable to get the win, hopefully this momentum the Cowboys had built wasn’t one step forward and one step back for the in-arena support. But we shall see.