Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 94-79 Loss to Baylor

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STILLWATER — The Bears hit Eddie Sutton Court on Tuesday night like a team desperate to avoid an 0-4 start in league play, and the Cowboys didn’t have much of an answer — especially early.

Oklahoma State fell to Baylor 94-79 on Tuesday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The loss drops the Cowboys to 13-4 and 1-3 in Big 12 play. Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. The Half from Hell

What do you get when good offense meets bad defense? The first half of this basketball game.

Baylor hung 57 points on the Cowboys in the first half, going 22-for-30 (73%) from the field and 9-for-14 (64%) from deep.

There was some bad defense played, but the Bears also hit some heavily contested shots in the frame. At one point, Baylor was 9-for-12 from deep in the half — which is 75%.

That came after Baylor went 17-for-67 (25%) from 3 in its first three Big 12 games.

“There’s two mindsets,” OSU coach Steve Lutz said. “No. 1 is defend them, get your hands up and hope they miss. And No. 2 is be there on the catch, apply pressure and make them miss. And we didn’t make them miss. …

“When the time came for somebody to rise up and either make a shot or get a defensive stop, they did their job and we did not. That’s the story of the game. You can’t let somebody come into your gym and hang 57 on you in the first half and go, ‘Oh, they just shot the ball real well.’ I ain’t trying to hear that. Nobody’s trying to hear that. You’ve gotta figure out a way to be tough enough, gritty enough to make them miss and be better defensively. Therein lies the difference in winning and losing tonight — 57 points in the first half.”

2. The Run that Made Things Half-Interesting

OSU went on an 18-5 run early in the second half to get the crowd back into it and make things interesting again.

That run was fueled by three Anthony Roy 3-pointers including back-to-back makes at the end of the run to force a Baylor time out with the Bears’ lead down to 72-61.

Roy was hyped, and the crowd was bouncing.

“I’ve been hearing just everybody say or talk about feeling GIA — there was a lot of people here today, and I just hate that we let him down,” Roy said. “Going forward, we’re gonna give it our all. It looked good in there. We just gotta win games so it could look better.”

Roy finished with 17 points, going 5-for-12 from deep.

Kanye Clary scored seven in that stretch and finished with 13 to go with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

But Baylor had a dunk and a layup coming out of that timeout. A little bit later, the Pokes whittled the lead down to 10 after a Jaylen Curry 3, but the Bears responded with a 5-0 run and kept the Pokes at arm’s length from there.

3. Fallah Plays Well, Goes Down, Returns

If someone told you that a center in this game was a former NBA Draft pick, you’d have probably thought it was Parsa Fallah.

Fallah finished with an OSU-high 18 points on 9-for-15 shooting to go with nine rebounds and a pair of steals. Seven of his boards were on the offensive end.

He hobbled off with what Steve Lutz called cramps early in the second half but returned to close the game out.

Baylor added former NBA Draft pick James Nnaji midyear, but the transition to the college game hasn’t been the smoothest. He didn’t score in the six minutes he played Tuesday, picking up three fouls in that time.

4. Cameron Carr Is V. Good

I leave GIA super impressed with Baylor redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Carr.

A Tennessee transfer, Carr dropped 17 points on the Pokes and went 5-for-8 from 3-point range. He missed his first 3-point attempt before rattling off his five makes consecutively.

At 6-foot-5, he also had six assists on the night.

He’s quick. He’s long. He can do a lot of things. Heck, he jumped at the opening tip. Good player.

5. Bad Day to Have a Bad Day

Tuesday’s game featured the best GIA crowd of the season, as 7,514 was the official attendance number.

Students were back in town, and the sections behind the baskets filled up well before the opening tip was tossed up, as more and more students started sitting in the 200s and 300s behind the baskets.

This might’ve marked a jumping off point for a revitalized fan base should the Cowboys have found a way to win. It’s the second time this season it’s felt like that has happened after the Cowboys lost to OU in a Bedlam game that would’ve made the Pokes 10-0 had they won that.

The Cowboys will have to hope that same group shows up for a 9 p.m. tip on Saturday despite Tuesday night’s result.

For what it’s worth, this was the Cowboys’ first loss on their home floor this season.

“I thought that the crowd was fantastic,” Lutz said. “Those kids were loud. When we got it to 10, man, that’s what Gallagher-Iba should feel like. But our job, if you will, is to then finish the game off, and we did not do that tonight.

“But the fans were great. The students were great. I’m glad they’re back. They give such an advantage here. You just can’t dig yourself in a hole in the first half like we did. And again, that’s on us.”

Steve Lutz Postgame

Up Next

Opponent: Kansas State
Time: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena
TV: CBS Sports Network