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Instacap: Oklahoma State Falls 65-64 to Texas

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Oklahoma State followed the trend it has blazed for itself all season once again on Saturday: it followed up an impressive win with a loss it couldn’t afford.

The Cowboys fell to Texas, 65-64, in a marquee bubble game just days after topping Texas Tech. It’s a game that might be referred to henceforth as the “what if?” game for Mike Boynton’s club. A win would’ve pushed the Pokes to within one game of potentially securing an NCAA Tournament spot, but this loss — and especially to another conference team on the bubble like Texas — is one it likely won’t be able to recover from.

OSU used a 17-2 run midway through the second half to build a 10-point cushion behind a stellar stretch from Lindy Waters and Jeff Carroll, but as it has been apt to do this season, crumbled in the final minutes and let Texas get whatever it wanted on offense.

Jeff Carroll led all scorers with 19 points and nearly sunk a halfcourt buzzer beater to win it. Lindy Waters continued his hot streak to finish with 14, but no other Cowboys finished in double figures. As a team, they shot just 37.9 percent from the floor and 34.6 percent (9 of 26) from beyond the arc.

OSU’s defense held sturdy for much of the game and almost played good enough to win the game. It forced Texas into some truly horrific and empty offensive sets in the second half and Texas, too, struggled to find success from the floor. But even with the mid-game departure of lottery pick Mo Bamba, the Horns won the battle on the boards on both ends of the floor and rode that train to a win.

It was over when

Kerwin Roach hit the go-ahead layup with under 3 seconds remaining.

Player of the game

Kendall Smith was dormant for much of the game but in the final minute, hit clutch basket after clutch basket to keep OSU at pace. But I have to go with Jeff Carroll here. He finished with 19 points and 6 boards, and nearly won the game at the buzzer.

Stat you should know

An interesting nugget that, to me, tells the story of not only this game, but the season: Texas’ bench scored 25 points to OSU’s 13. This despite the fact that OSU had more points off turnovers and (17 to 9 in favor of OSU) and more fasst break buckets (12 to 4 in favor of OSU).

What’s next

Oklahoma State travels to Ames, Iowa, on Tuesday to face the Cyclones in its penultimate game of the regular season. Iowa State is riding a three-game losing streak and recently announced that Nick Weiler-Babb and Solomon Young, itss fourth and fifth leading scorers, are likely out for the season.

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