Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 83-71 Loss to No. 3 Iowa State

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The Cowboys hung with Iowa State better than a lot of teams have this season, but some late scoring droughts spelled doom for their late comeback attempt.

Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State 83-71 at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday. Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. It Was a Good Fight

The Big 12 isn’t all too sympathetic to moral victories, but the Cowboys hung with the unbeaten, No. 3 Cyclones — in Hilton no less.

How dominant has Iowa State been? It has an 18-point win against Creighton, a 31-point win against Syracuse, a 23-point win against Purdue and a 21-point win against West Virginia.

The Cowboys were shorthanded (which we’ll get to) and were in that game throughout. OSU fans should at least leave that one feeling a bit more hopeful about OSU’s tourney chances compared to OSU’s loss in Lubbock last weekend.

2. The First Half Was Better Than the Second

OSU led for 12:58 in the first half, and if it wasn’t for some ridiculous Milan Momcilovic 3s late in the period , the Pokes would’ve went into the locker room leading the No. 3 Cyclones in their own building.

The big differences in the second half compared to the first were rebounds and free throws.

OSU had a 16-12 advantage on the glass in the first half and allowed Iowa State just two offensive rebounds. But then the Cyclones outrebounded OSU 24-10 in the second half, as ISU ripped down seven offensive boards that turned into 10 second-chance points.

As far as the charity stipe is concerned, OSU attempted 19 free throws in the first half — five more than ISU. But ISU shot 16 second-half free throws to OSU’s seven.

3. Another Day, Another Injury

Maybe one of these days the Cowboys will be healthy, but Saturday was not that day.

Along with Lefteris Mantzoukas missing his sixth straight game, the Cowboys were also without Vyctorius Miller in Ames. Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb were discussing on the pregame radio show that Miller re-aggravated the ankle injury that saw him miss a game in early December.

Christian Coleman did return after missing the UCF game with the flu, but he picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game and had to sit. With him on the bench, Robert Jennings out, Mantzoukas out and Miller out, that led OSU to playing large stretches of this game with two centers (Fallah and Vukovic) and two point guards (Clary and Curry) on the floor at the same time.

The Cowboys made due, but it’d be nice to get some data points on this team at full (or even close to full) strength.

4. Fallah Was Great

Parsa Fallah was, again, remarkable for the Cowboys.

He finished with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double and also had three assists and two steals.

It’s Fallah’s third double-double of the season, and it’s the fifth time since the start of December that he has eclipsed the 20-point threshold.

He was operating out of the high post quite a bit Saturday, oftentimes coming off a short roll (an action that has given OSU’s defense fits at times this year). When he’d catch on the high post, he’d have a teammate in the short corner (which is more commonly being referred to as the “dunker’s spot”) and shooters go to the corners.

Fallah would step into the lane and make the defense make a decision of who it wanted to guard and oftentimes made the right play, whether that be hitting a floater, dropping a pass off to Andrija Vukovic or finding Roy in the corner for a 3.

Fallah pushed his 3-point streak to three games after stepping into one shortly after the game tipped off. He attempted two more later in the game that went … less great.

5. Big Game Tuesday

The Big 12 is so unforgiving that Scott Drew’s squad that recently added an NBA Draft pick is off to an 0-3 start.

The Bears started Big 12 play with a loss in Fort Worth to TCU before losing to this Iowa State team earlier this week and then to No. 7 Houston on Saturday.

So, the Bears will be desperate for a win when they travel to Stillwater on Tuesday. Meanwhile every Big 12 win the Pokes can get is huge for their tournament resume.  Neither team can afford to lick its wounds from the weekend. It’s back to battling.