Instacap: Oklahoma State Falls to Kansas 78-66

For a moment there, Oklahoma State looked like it might overcome another poor-shooting, turnover-ridden outing when Cade Cunningham turned it on with two minutes to go. But this time his late-game heroics came a little too late.

The Cowboys, as a whole, picked up where they left off on Saturday, at least in the turnover department. After giving it away 21 times in the double-OT loss to Texas, the Cowboys committed four turnovers in the first four minutes after tipoff, and then had five turnovers in less than three minutes toward the end of the the first half, sending the Cowboys into halftime with a dozen TOs. OSU cleaned it up a bit in the second, finishing with just 18 giveaways but slow, sloppy starts have become far too common as of late.

Speaking of trends, Cade Cunningham also started out slow and sloppy, much like he did last Saturday. He was credited with four of those 12 first half turnovers and went just 1-for-3 for five points at the break.

The Cowboys were down just three at the half and kept it close the first few minutes of the second half before Kansas used a 6-0 run to push its lead to as much as nine. The Cowboys were able to pull within four twice before the Jayhawks built push their lead to double digits with five minutes to go and were able to keep the Pokes at bay. Despite a late 6-0 run by Cunningham alone, Kansas was able to hold off the Pokes and get them back for stealing their No. 23 spot in the AP Poll hours earlier.

Cunningham heated up late after his cold start. He led all scorers with 26 points and led OSU with nine rebounds.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the Jayhawks were able to do one thing that Texas wasn’t able to do late on Saturday, hit shots. Five Jayhawks scored in double digits. Leading the way was David McCormack who scored 21 of his 23 points in the second and his Jayhawks went 6-of-8 from the field down the stretch.

Even with a reduced capacity, Allen Fieldhouse seemed to hold some sway over the flow of the game. Oklahoma State only attempted nine free throws in the second half to Kansas’ 26. The final tally was 18 free ones to 34 in favor of the home team.

Oklahoma State followed a season-low 35-percent shooting performance in the win over Texas with another 35-percent outing. OSU hadn’t finished a game at less than 42 percent since its Big 12 opener and had not dipped below 40 percent all season before the last three days.

Next up

The Cowboys move to 12- and 5-6 in Big 12 play. They’ll be back home to host Kansas State on Saturday on 11 a.m.