Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 69-61 Loss at No. 13 TCU

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The Cowgirls showed tons of fight and some very nice things on their trip to Fort Worth — including Stailee Heard breaking out of her near-season long slump. But poor perimeter shooting and turnovers down the stretch added up to OSU’s second conference loss.

Here are Five Thoughts on the Cowgirls’ hard-fought loss to No. 13 TCU.

1. Stailee Heard Shakes Off Her Slump

I’ll start with the good news.

One of the more confounding storylines from the Cowgirls’ 12-1 nonconference record this season was the fact that they did it with their best player not playing up to her normal level.

After scoring at least 20 points 12 times on a way to earning All-Big 12 First Team status as a sophomore, Heard only reached that mark once in her first 16 games as a junior. She came into Wednesday night averaging career lows in points (9.3) and field goal percentage (39.5%). TCU came in No. 2 in the nation in opponent scoring and opponent field-goal percentage, but that didn’t stop her from taking it to the Horned Frogs.

OSU started 0-for-4 until Heard pulled up for her first 3. Fifty seconds later, she drained another one and was off and running. She had eight points in the first quarter and finished with 23 on 9-of-19 shooting. After those first two made 3s, she did miss her last eight, but that was a going around for the Cowgirls.

My biggest takeaway is that Heard was aggressive early and inflicted her game on a really good team throughout. She was bulldozing defenders, diving on the ground and chopping it up with the TCU home crowd. The Cowgirls have done heck of a job so far with her not pouring it in every night. If she can assert herself like she did in Fort Worth on a more consistent basis, who knows how good they can be.

2. Jadyn Wooten Continues to Be the Motor

Wooten led all scorers with 25 off the bench. As per usual, she was everywhere and into everything.

The sophomore, who leads the nation in assists among reserve players, only dished out two, but she grabbed four boards and two steals. And even when the game was all but over with OSU down nine with seven seconds to go, she steamrolled into the lane to draw a foul and get a couple of free throws. Wooten has scored in double digits in 12 of 16 games this season. Her 17.5 points per game in conference play leads the Cowgirls and ranks ninth in the Big 12.

With all the veteran perimeter talent returning as well as the incoming transfers like Amari Whiting and Hayleigh Timmer taking up touches, Wooten continues to excel off the bench. She’s got the ability to take over a game, and I have a feeling that the Cowgirls will go as far as she’s able to drive them.

3. Aberrant 3-point Shooting or Abhorrent 3-point Shooting?

Okay, the bad news. Or rather, maybe some sneaky okay news.

OSU came in 14th in the nation, shooting 37.6% from 3, but managed to shoot just 4-for-22 from deep (18%). Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs (who are a good 3-point shooting team at 36.4%, started out ablaze and never really cooled. TCU made 5-of-6 from 3 to start and finished an efficient 9-of-18 (50%) from deep.

After Heard’s back-to-back early makes, OSU missed 12 straight from beyond the arc. That’s not necessarily uncondoned. Jacie Hoyt wants her shooters taking shots. But the Cowgirls have now shot sub-20% from 3 in two of their last three games. They have been without sharpshooter Lena Girardi as well during that stretch.

There’s two ways to look at it. If this is another one-off, then the Cowgirls still kept it close with a Top 15 team on the road. But if it’s a trend with the increase in competition with the step up to Big 12 play, the Cowgirls will need to adjust and clean up the other, more controllable issues.

4. Controllables Didn’t Help

Despite what could be considered an aberration from OSU’s normally prolific perimeter shooters, they gave up some free points and possessions, especially late.

The Cowgirls actually won the turnover battle, forcing 16 by TCU to OSU’s 12, but they had three unforced giveaways in the last 6:23 of game play (all three travel calls) that led directly to six points going the other way. OSU took its first lead, going up 51-50 wit 6:59 left, but didn’t score again the next three and half minutes, while allowing TCU to go 6-for-7 from the field the rest of the way.

OSU also shot just 9-for-13 on free throws (69%) after shooting just 58% against Houston and 65% against Baylor. That was also a bit uncharacteristic, as Wooten, a career 76% foul shooter went just 3-of-6 and missed one late. But it goes to show you how slim your margins are when the deep balls aren’t falling.

5. Newsflash: The Big 12 Is Tough

All the noncon hype has dampened a bit. The Cowgirls are 2-2 and are in the middle of a logjam as they face the meat of their Big 12 slate.

Coming into this one, there were seven Big 12 teams at 2-1, including these two, and at the end of the night there were only three. No. 17 Texas Tech is the only remaining beating West Virginia. The highest ranked team, No. 11 Iowa State, lost to a Cincinnati team that was previously winless in the league. Things are only going to get tougher from here on out.