Instant Recap: Cowboys Drop Final Scheduled Bedlam in Norman 66-62

The Cowboys lost an ugly one at Lloyd Noble Center, but they won’t be going back there any time soon.

Oklahoma State dropped Round 1 of Bedlam 66-62 to Oklahoma in the final season that the two teams are to be conference rivals.

OSU had won the last three Bedlam meetings, and seven of the last eight, in the soon-collapsing series, but the Cowboys move to 10-14 and 2-9 in Big 12 play.

Javon Small didn’t touch the scoreboard during the first 16 minutes of play but finished with a game-high 17 points on 5-of-16 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists.

John-Michael Wright scored 13 points but did most of his damage from the line (more on that below) and Quion Williams pitched in 12 on nine shots and grabbed a game-high 10 boards.

This one started U-G-L-Y, and only got marginally more pretty.

The Cowboys shot just 21.9% from the field in the first half compared to the Sooners’ 44%, but they kept it close thanks to scoring 12 points off 12 OU turnovers and giving up three on just six all game. OSU trailed by just five at the break. The Pokes’ shots started falling in the second half, hitting 40% from the field.

The Cowboys were up four points with 4:34 to go, but Jalon Moore’s corner 3 broke a Sooner FG draught of nearly four and a half minutes and woke the crowd up.

Brandon Garrison’s tip-in pulled the Pokes within 61-58 with 1:55 to go, and then Quion Williams nailed a couple of charity shots to pull them within one. Then Javon Small had a chance to hush the crowd with 34 seconds to go but the shot clanged out. That miss put the Cowboys into foul mode. OU’s Javian McCollum made both of his. Williams’ muscled-in layup brought the Cowboys back to within one with 13.9 left. McCollum made two more free ones with 9.5 to go. Small raced to the paint with the inbounds pass but was stripped, which essentially ended it.

The Sooner faithful was vocal, especially with ref-sinking expletives, with OU getting hung with three technicals and a Flagrant 1. Objectively, the F1 seemed warranted on OU’s Hugley, and it’s hard to say what words elicited the Ts from OU. While the free throw disparity was lopsided toward OSU in the first half, the foul count was not. In the end, OSU was called for 23 personals to OU’s 18 and shot just four more charity shots.

Next Up

The Cowboys get a full week off before hosting BYU at 1 p.m. Saturday inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.