Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 87-76 Victory against No. 25 UCF

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STILLWATER — After a rough afternoon in Lubbock, the Cowboys returned to their home floor, had as good a defensive performance as they’ve had in some time and, most importantly, got in the win column.

Oklahoma State beat UCF 87-76 on Tuesday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Kanye Clary Ran the Show

Kanye Clary was the straw that stirred the drink for the Pokes, finishing his night with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

In the second half alone, Clary had 15 points, five boards and three assists.

He seemed to always have a bucket when the Cowboys need one.

UCF started the second half on a 7-2 run to cut OSU’s lead to 43-39, and Clary hit a big 3.

A bit later in the half, the Knights rattled off a 7-0 run to cut OSU’s lead to 51-50 before Clary got to the basket and converted an and-one.

COUNT IT 👇 @Kanyeclary pic.twitter.com/VLPHxggbuG

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 7, 2026

There was about a three-minute stretch late where Clary scored six of the game’s nine points, hitting a couple of layups and a couple of free throws.

This tied a season-high for Clary in scoring, while the 6-foot guard’s nine boards were a season-high.

“Coach was just putting me in positions to just get downhill, use my speed,” Clary said. “I work on my shot. He gave me the opportunity to shoot the ball, and today the shots went in.”

2. Defense!

The Cowboys held just one team below 40% field goal shooting in the month of December (Kansas City) and Lutz harped on his group’s defense since before the season started.

It got rough the past three games, with Cal State-Fullerton shooting 51% on the Pokes, Bethune Cookman shooting 46% and Texas Tech shooting 48%.

Then all of a sudden, the Cowboys held a UCF team that came into the day shooting 49% from the field to 38%, while the Knights shot just 21% from 3.

OSU also won the battle on the glass 39-36 after going -12 in Lubbock.

“I’ve always believed that they had it in them to do it,” Lutz said. “And I’ve always said that I believe in their character, I believe in their ability and I believe in their will to win. Unfortunately, that’s not always been the top of our list, and it’s bit us in the butt when we weren’t.

“I felt like we had a fantastic video session on Sunday followed by a practice and then followed by a practice on Monday in which they embraced what the Big 12 is about. You cannot win in this league if you take bad shots and you do not play defense and you do not rebound the basketball, at the end of the day.”

3. The Unstoppable Force AND the Immovable Object

OSU is running out of power forwards, leading the Cowboys to starting Parsa Fallah and Ben Ahmed in Tuesday.

Lutz and Co. have tinkered with a two-big lineup because of some unavailability at the four. Christian Coleman missed Tuesday’s game with the flu. Lefteris Mantzoukas missed his fifth straight game, with Lutz still labeling him as day-to-day.

OSU’s first half had more two-big stretches than the second, with Fallah playing the power forward with Ahmed and Andrija Vukovic at different times.

The first OSU offensive possession of the game showed the power of the two-big lineup, as Ahmed cleared the lane for Fallah, and the Iranian big man got the easiest two points of his night.

Parsa goin’ to work early 💪@theparsafallah pic.twitter.com/wWpfyIqvm6

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 7, 2026

Fallah finished with a game-high 24 points. Ahmed got into some early foul trouble, while the returning Vukovic had one of his better nights, finishing with four points on three shots with three rebounds, an assist, two blocks and two steals.

4. It Was an Ugly Finish

The Cowboys did get a little lax with this thing late.

The final 3:11 minutes saw OSU turn the ball over five times and both teams combine to miss five free throws.

It was pure chaos for a bit with UCF implementing a full-court press. Bodies were all over the place, balls were heading into the stands, OSU got called for a 10-second violation. Anthony Roy ended the game sitting on his butt in the backcourt. Chaos, I tell you.

“I wanted to jump off into Boomer Lake,” Lutz said. “I’ve never seen something like that, guys. From both teams, I’ve never seen something like that. Now, with all that being said. we’ve gotta be more conscientious about taking care of the basketball and we’ve gotta know where the ball needs to go. We’ve had late-game runs, or late-game situations with South Florida, with Northwestern and we handled the ball well, and we handled the press well. And tonight for whatever reason, boy, we were out in outer space for some reason.”

5. Pokes on the Big 12 Board

This wasn’t a must-win game. Jan. 6 is too early for that, but this win did feel massive this early into the new year.

The Cowboys’ trip to Lubbock didn’t inject a ton of confidence in the fanbase, and after this win the Cowboys have to go to Ames to play No. 3 Iowa State. The potential was there to start in a three-game hole before the Cowboys put up the performance they did Tuesday.

Now, OSU is 1-1 and back in the Big 12 fight.

“Saturday at Lubbock was very disappointing, and that one hurt because I expected us to compete better,” Lutz said. “Texas Tech’s really good, and Central Florida’s really good, as well, but I expected us to compete better. I thought the competitive side to our basketball game tonight was much better. And any time we can do that, I think we’re gonna give ourselves an opportunity.

“But guys, you take every win in the Big 12 you can get.”

Postgame News Conference