Anthony Roy Leads Oklahoma State in Thrilling Win Over No. 16 BYU

STILLWATER —When BYU called timeout with just over four minutes left, Anthony Roy had to chest bump his way through most of what felt like the entire Cowboys team after he sank a 3-point shot to take a 12-point lead.

That served as a mere warmup act for the celebration that took place with fans and students who rushed the court after Oklahoma State beat No. 16 BYU 99-92 on Wednesday night.

“That was my first one,” Roy said of the court storming. “I hope it’s not the last.”

Roy finished with a team-high 30 points after shooting 5-of-10 beyond the arc, and he did it all despite being the OSU player that BYU coach Kevin Young identified as the guy that stood out the most on film.

“Roy, no doubt, he’s a big-time player,” Young said. “Great body, super aggressive, deep range. Always got to know where he’s at. That was a great recruitment by Steve and their coaching staff. He’s really, really impressive.”

While he took center stage as a scorer, it was a true team effort as five other Cowboys finished in double figures, including Jaylen Curry (18 points), Vyctorious Miller (14), Parsa Fallah (13) and Christian Coleman (10).

The biggest difference in the game came on turnovers as Oklahoma State limited its turnovers to only eight while the Cougars turned it over 16 times. The Cowboys made the most of the discrepancy, outscoring the visitors 21-8 when it came to points off turnovers.

“We’ve shown flashes of being a good team,” Roy said. “And I think we just got to find a way to put it together for a full 40 minutes. So I feel like this definitely could be a turning point for us, and if we keep playing the way we did tonight, we going to have a good season.”

BYU called its final timeout of the night, trailing 88-77 with 2:11 remaining in the game. The Cougars quickly knocked down a 3, but Roy knocked down both his free throws on the following possession. And Fallah brought down the defensive rebound to keep the Cowboys in front with the ball by double digits with 1:24 to play.

The good news started before halftime as Lefteris Mantzoukas returned to the lineup for the first time since Bedlam on Dec. 13. He started six of the nine games he played before his lengthy absence.

Before Wednesday night, his rebounding average of 4.8 per game ranked second on the time and his scoring average of 5.6 points ranked eighth.

Oklahoma State led for most of this one, even taking a 15-point lead in the first half before BYU went on a 29-8 run spanning the last 5.5 minutes of the first half and the first three minutes of the second to take a 5-point lead.

As well as the Cowboys looked for stretches on Wednesday night, they were unable to slow down the nation’s No. 3 scorer, AJ Dybantsa, who finished with 36 points, putting him well ahead of his season-long average of 23.3 points entering the game. Dybantsa is viewed by many as an early lottery pick projected to go somewhere in the top three in the 2026 NBA Draft.

“It’s not often you get to play somebody who’s a projected number one, number two pick in the draft, and those are all like that’s (the) aspiration for all of us,” Roy said. “You know, we all want to play in the NBA. So he’s super talented, and I feel like we all looked at this game as an opportunity to show that, you know, we could play in the NBA too. So that was huge. And I got a lot of respect for all them dudes on that team, and him, included.”

The loss was only BYU’s fifth overall this season and the Cougar’s fourth in conference play. As the BYU coach pointed out, those other losses have come under dramatically different circumstances considering all of those teams ranked 13th or higher in the latest AP Top 25.

“It sucks to lose,” Young said. “It sucks to lose to the No. 1 team in the country (Arizona) by two. It sucks to lay an egg at (No. 11) Kansas and then pull your way back in at their place (and lose). It sucks to be up by nine at (No. 13) Texas Tech and nine minutes to go lose the game. It sucks to come here against a gritty team and drop one on the road.”

The win should help the Cowboys make up a lot of ground in the NCAA Tournament picture, considering it gives the team its first Quad 1 win. As it stands now, Oklahoma State is 1-4 in such games this season.

That’s been the missing piece for most of the season as the Cowboys ranked 67th in the NET, were 6-2 against Quad 2 competition and remained undefeated against all lower quadrants heading into Wednesday night.

“If you want to put yourself in the mix you got to win those (Quad 1) games,” coach Steve Lutz said. “Because that is what the selection committee is going to look at. … We’ve already surpassed our wins from last year and we weren’t in the hunt for going to the NCAA Tournament last year and we’re relevant in that hunt. Now we’ve got to finish it off.”