Instant Recap: Oklahoma State Rebounds against Tulsa, Tops Golden Hurricane 90-58

BOXSCORE

The Cowgirls got right just in time for Big 12 play.

Oklahoma State defeated Tulsa 90-58, a welcome return to Gallagher-Iba Arena for the Cowgirls’ final nonconference game.

OSU had dropped from No. 23 to the unofficial 26th spot as the first team outside of the AP poll after falling to No. 9 Oklahoma Saturday in a neutral contest in Oklahoma City. But the Cowgirls played like a ranked team on Monday, even as a couple of their best players struggled.

After both teams started off sloppy in the first quarter, the Cowgirls tightened things up in the second and that was enough to blow the game open. Oklahoma State won the second quarter 24-6 thanks in large part to their defense. OSU scored 15 points off 11 Tulsa turnovers just in the second frame. The Cowgirls took a 41-19 lead into the half and it was effectively over despite some grit shown by Tulsa in the third.

For the second straight game, Stailee Heard got into early foul trouble and for the second straight game, it kept her out of rhythm. She picked up her second foul in the final minute of the first quarter and had her fourth midway through the third. Heard finished with just four points on 1-of-5 shooting performance in a season-low 13 minutes. Aside from her 26 points against Missouri Valley State on Dec. 6, Heard has reached double-digit scoring just once (10 points) in last seven outings.

Haleigh Timmer came in as OSU’s leading scorer but she went just 1-for-7 from the field scoring four of her six points from the free-throw line. But the good sign for this team (and the bad sign for the rest of the Big 12), is that the Cowgirls can drop 90 with two of their best players having off nights.

Four Cowgirls scored in double digits led by Micah Gray’s 20 points on just 11 shots. The senior logged her third consecutive 20-point performance going 7-of-11 from the field, 5-for-5 from the charity stripe and grabbed three rebounds.

After an off night from Amari Whiting in Bedlam, the BYU transfer dropped 18 on 12 shots, going 3-for-5 from deep. Whiting filled out the boxscore and put her prints all over the game, grabbing six boards and five steals and dishing a pair of assists.

Freshman Lena Girardi may be one of the Cowgirls’ playmakers of the future, but the future is now — at least it was on Monday. Girardi scored 12 of her 14 points in that big second quarter, going 3-for-4 from deep in that period. Jadyn Wooten continued to be a sparkplug off the bench, scoring 13 and adding to her Top 10 nationally assist total with seven more.

The Golden Hurricane did weather multiple Cowgirl runs to avoid losing even more ground in the third. They actually outscored the Cowgirls by four in that period and were able to pull within 17 twice. But any ground, scoreboard or moral-wise, that the Golden Hurricane gained in the third was quickly wiped away in the fourth. The Cowgirls started the final frame on a 11-0 run to push their lead to 72-43 and never looked back.

After giving up 27 points on 22 turnovers to OU, the Cowgirls flipped the script and scored 33 points of 31 Tulsa TOs thanks to 17 steals, while allowing just seven off of their 15 giveaways.

With the win, the Cowgirls improve to 11-2. Next up, they head to Cincinnati for their Big 12 opener. They will face the Bearcats at 1 p.m. Sunday in Cincinnati.