Unlikely Heroes: Cowboys Lean on Reserves Following Suspensions in NIT Win Over Davidson

STILLWATER — On a night when Oklahoma State’s lineup was nearly unrecognizable, it makes sense that some of the Cowboys’ biggest late-game heroics came from an unlikely individual.

Daniel Guetta, who previously played 18 minutes of basketball since New Year’s, drilled a 3-pointer to give Oklahoma State a 2-point lead with four minutes to play. He then secured that lead by stealing the ball from one-time OSU commit Parker Friedrichsen.

Guetta drew a foul on the would-be uncontested fast break and knocked down both attempts at the free throw line to extend the Cowboys’ lead to four points with 1:42 to play, allowing Oklahoma State to survive the first round of the NIT with an 84-80 win.

“Of course it is tough on me not to play. … But you know my family support me and they call me every time. … (Encouraging me) to stay ready mentally. … My family, my friends on the team they help me a lot,” Guetta said. “And I know it is going to come like at the end of the day it needs to come sometime so I just stay ready.”

Guetta finished the night with 11 points and two rebounds after playing 21 minutes, but he was far from the only change in the lineup on Tuesday night.

“People just don’t understand everything that he has going on,” Lutz said. “There’s days where have to let someone hang on to his phone during a meeting because he’s expecting a call from his family (in Israel), or from his brother, who goes into the war and then gets to come home and it’s a tough deal for that young man. I mean, he is stronger than, he’s stronger than I think I could ever be at that age.”

Oklahoma State suspended lead scorer Anthony Roy, No. 2 scorer Vyctorius Miller (ignoring actual No. 2 Parsa Fallah, who is out with a season-ending injury) and Isaiah Coleman, who is sixth among available players in both minutes and points.

Following the win, coach Steve Lutz said he had not decided if those guys would return to the court this season.

“We’re still working through the process,” Lutz said. “They’ve got to meet the standards and the expectations of the program, and they’re working towards that right now. So they just, you know, they made a mistake and as I said, I mean, I believe in humankind. I believe that they’re good people. But when I was 18 to 22 in college, I made some mistakes too, guys. But the fact of the matter is, is that when you make a mistake, you have to be held accountable, and we are doing so.”

In their absence, Oklahoma State’s first two players off the bench were Mekhi Ragland (58 minutes across 12 games this season) and Guetta (78 minutes across nine games).

While the game was dominated by such stories, Kanye Clary, the team’s leader in minutes this season, held down the fort. Clary finished with a team-high 20 points, including two free throws in the final seven seconds, which put the Cowboys up by two possessions and all but guaranteed the win.

Fellow regular starter Christian Coleman finished with a double-double after scoring 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Despite trailing by as much 14 points in the first half, freshman center Ben Amhed (elevated in place of injured Cowboys Adrija Vukovic and Fallah) and Guetta combined for eight points to power a 14-3 OSU run, which cut the deficit down to three points with seven minutes left to play in the first half.

Ultimately, it was Ragland, fresh off his third steal of the game, who hit the and-1 to tie the game up with five minutes left in the first half.

Ahmed finished second on the team with 16 points and six rebounds, while Ragland scored five points to go with a pair of rebounds and his trio of steals in 11 minutes.

Despite playing only 10 minutes, all in the first half, Kirk Cole (42 minutes previously this season) doubled his point total for the season after knocking down his only two 3-point attempts in that stretch.

Friedrichsen, a former Bixby star, finished second on Davidson with 16 points. Following the win, Lutz made it clear, Jaylen Curry who has missed recent practices with the flu was a big reason the Oklahoma native didn’t have a bigger night. Speaking of which, Curry finished with 11 points to give the Cowboys five players in double figures.

With the win, the 2-seeded Cowboys will face No. 3 seed Wichita State in the second round Sunday with a game time yet to be determined. While continuing to advance in the NIT allows these players another chance to compete, Lutz said the game reps are especially valuable for younger Cowboys, many of whom got to play extended minutes on Tuesday.

“It’s an unbelievable honor to wear the Oklahoma State jersey and represent Oklahoma State,” Lutz said. “And so anytime that you get an opportunity to play basketball and represent our university and our brand and those sorts of things, you should be jumping at the opportunity to do so, and the guys were. … (However), let’s not kid each other. We want to be in the NCAA tournament, but we’re not. So let’s put our best foot forward in the NIT, and let’s continue to grow the players, and let’s continue to grow the program. And that’s what this is about. It’s also about winning, we want to win this thing.”