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Cowgirl Basketball: Oklahoma State Beats West Virginia 76-65

The Cowgirls move to 7-5 in Big 12 play and have a chance to sweep Baylor on Saturday.

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

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STILLWATER — With Taylen Collins on the floor, sometimes the Cowgirls’ best offense was a missed shot.

Oklahoma State beat West Virginia 76-65 on Tuesday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena with the Cowgirls winning the battle on the glass 41-25. Collins, from Muldrow, had a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double with six of her points coming quickly after offensive rebounds. She didn’t miss a shot in the game, going 5-for-5 from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line. It was her sixth double-double of the year.

“She’s got great players around her, and I think because of that she’s able to get easy layups around the rim,” OSU coach Jacie Hoyt said. “In the first half she was really great on the glass for us. She got some big-time offensive rebounds and putbacks. She’s just active. She’s active in everything that she does.

“Her motor is really special for her size [6-foot-1]. I think that we’re just kind of seeing her clean things up. With our ball-screen offense that we run, having so many shooters around her opens her up.”

The Mountaineers hung around with the Cowgirls for the better part of a half. The game was tied at 43 with 7:16 to play in the third quarter before the Cowgirls ripped off an 8-1 run and were able to keep WVU at arm’s reach from then on out.

Naomi Alnatas, Terryn Milton, Kassidy De Lapp and Anna Gret Asi joined Collins in double figures.

Milton, a former Owasso standout, joined in on the double-double party. She had an efficient night, going 6-for-10 from the field en route to scoring 15 points to go with her 10 rebounds and team-high five assists. It was her second double-double of the season Coming into the night, Milton averaged 10.1 points per game, but across the Cowgirls’ past six, she averages 14 points a game.

Alnatas led the way for the Cowgirls with 16 points. It’s the 12th time she has scored at least 15 points in a game this season.

Longtime Cowgirl Kassidy De Lapp set a season-high with 12 points, but her presence on the floor wasn’t measured just in the points she scored. De Lapp was a team-best +19 in plus/minus, meaning OSU was 19 points better than WVU while De Lapp was on the floor. De Lapp also had six rebounds and two blocks.

“We really talked about this being a team effort and feeling like if our guards were struggling or knowing we were gonna be in a lot of ball screens, our bigs being back there and being that kind of second line of defense,” Hoyt said. “I think that’s where she made a huge impact for us.”

Now at 17-7 (7-5 in the Big 12), the Cowgirls were a projected 10 seed in ESPN’s latest round of bracketology, which released Tuesday morning. That put them in the “Last four byes” category of the bubble. The Cowgirls were last in the NCAA Tournament in 2021 where they were an 8 seed.

Oklahoma State hosts Baylor at 2 p.m. Saturday with the Cowgirls looking for a sweep against the Bears after winning 70-65 in Waco.

Jacie Hoyt’s Postgame News Conference

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