Cowgirl Hoops: Heard Drops 26, as Oklahoma State Beats Colorado 82-65

PHOTOS
BOX SCORE

STILLWATER — After a few quieter games in the scoring column, Stailee Heard going off felt like an inevitability.

Oklahoma State beat Colorado 82-65 on Saturday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena in a game Heard, a superstar sophomore, dropped 26 points. She scored nine total points in two games in Utah last week. Heard also led the Cowgirls in rebounds against the Buffaloes, pulling down seven. She was scoring from everywhere Saturday. Heard went 3-for-6 from 3, 7-for-8 from the foul line and was 8-for-16 from the field. She does such a good job when she’s driving the lane at absorbing contact, creating separation off it and, most importantly, finishing.

“She’s just tough as nails,” OSU coach Jacie Hoyt said. “She’s just a tough kid. She came in that way. If you talk to her parents or you talk to other people about her parents and the way they played the game, I think that’s just who Stailee is and how she was raised. But I think our coaches have done a really good job in helping her understand getting to different spots on the floor and how she can attack defenses and use that physicality. We’ve made a great team together, and it’s so fun having someone like her who is so coachable. …

“I would say Stailee, of any player I’ve ever coached, is probably the quickest to be able to take information and then apply it right away. It’s almost creepy how she does it. She doesn’t need reps at it. You can just tell her, you can show her one time on film, and she does it.”

CASH pic.twitter.com/CfxtxUgxdZ

— OSU Cowgirl Basketball (@OSUWBB) February 22, 2025

Despite what the final score might entail, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Cowgirls on Saturday. CU went on a 7-0 run in the first quarter to take a 19-13 lead with about 1:45 left in the quarter. OSU responded to that run, though, with a 7-0 run of its own to finish the quarter. Senior center Tenin Magassa was the leader in that run. It started with a pair of Magassa free throws before she hit a jumper from the elbow. She also had a monstrous block in that stretch.

Senior Alexia Smith got a steal at the end of the quarter and took it all the way to the other end, hitting a jumper as time expired to give OSU a 20-19 lead heading into the second.

Colorado tied it at 24 early in the second quarter, but OSU responded with another 7-0 run. Colorado never got too close after that. The run started with a nasty Anna Gret Asi step-back 3. Asi finished her Senior Day with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. She was a team-best +20, meaning the Cowgirls were 20 points better than the Buffaloes with Asi on the floor.

After that wicked step-back, the Cowgirl defense took over. Heard got a steal and took it coast-to-coast for a layup before Micah Gray got a steal and did the same, forcing a CU timeout. Gray joined Heard and Asi in double figures, scoring 14 points.

Alllllllllll the way to bucket @MicahGray2022 pic.twitter.com/I3IQ5bGL6K

— OSU Cowgirl Basketball (@OSUWBB) February 22, 2025

OSU forced the Buffaloes into 21 (twenty-one!) turnovers Saturday, which led to 27 OSU points. The teams actually shot similar percentages from the field, with OSU shooting 45% to CU’s 44%, but the difference was the Cowgirls forcing the 21 turnovers to the 11 turnovers the Buffaloes forced. Hoyt credited the tough defensive effort in part to the game they dropped to BYU last weekend.

“We were soft against BYU,” Hoyt said. “We were. We had a whole bunch of game film to back that up, and then on the flipside after that Utah game, it was good, quality game film the other side of it and just being aggressive, being who we have to be. I’m proud of that, but I think that Utah game really set the tone for our kids understanding how hard we have to play and what we want to do defensively, and it was good to see that carry into today.”

That’s sort of just what the Cowgirls do, as it was the sixth time this season OSU has forced at least 20 turnovers in a game. They’ve forced at least 15 in 17 games now.

OSU took a 46-32 lead into halftime. Colorado got it down to single digits a few times in the third quarter, but the Cowgirls seemingly always had an answer.

The Cowgirls were also the more aggressive team, getting to the foul line 28 times to Colorado’s 12. OSU took 10 foul shots in the third quarter alone, converting on seven.

OSU is 22-5 on the season now and 12-4 in Big 12 play. The win keeps the Cowgirls within the top four of the Big 12 standings, which is a big deal, as the top-four seeds all get two byes in the Big 12 tournament. The Cowgirls have two regular season games left. They’ll host Cincinnati at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday before closing the season March 2 in Lawrence.

“I thought our kids were who I wanted them to be today in terms of getting on the floor for loose balls, being really disruptive defensively,” Hoyt said. “That’s really what I’m focused on right now is how can you continue to play hard and be the hardest-working team when maybe the scoreboard says you don’t have to do that. That’s an area of focus for us lately is we don’t care what the scoreboard says, we don’t care who we’re playing, we wanna work. We’ve gotta work. I think our kids are really growing up in that right now.”

Postgame News Conference