Instant Recap: Cowboys’ Season Ends with 77-62 Loss to UCF in Big 12 Tournament

BOX SCORE

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Cowboys went into the locker room within striking distance of living to fight another day, but it was evident their season would end early in the second half.

Oklahoma State fell to UCF 77-62 on Tuesday in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. The loss mercifully ends OSU’s season at 12-20.

The Knights lead at the half was just 35-31, but they slashed the Cowboys to start the second half, going on a 13-0 run to start the second half — nine of those points came in the opening 2:05 of the period. The Cowboys didn’t hit a field goal for the first eight minutes of the half.

After a free-throw fest between these two teams in Stillwater earlier this season, the Knights got to the line just nine times in the first half and shot just 34% from the field. But then OSU’s defense sent the Knights to the line 15 times after halftime while UCF shot 48% from the field.

Points off turnovers ended up being 17-8 in UCF’s favor while the Knights also had a 16-4 advantage on second-chance points.

OSU finished shooting just 37% from the field and 31% from 3-point range.

To add further insult to injury, the Knights finished the regular season as the worst 3-point shooting team in the Big 12, making just 31% of their attempts in the regular season. But against the Cowboys on Tuesday, UCF went 9-for-18 (50%) from deep.

Basically, nothing was going well for the Cowboys. OSU did have nine blocks in the first half, which is more than it had in any game this season. The Pokes finished the game with 11 blocks

Like he has been most of the season, Javon Small was the Cowboys’ best player, finishing with 21 points. After dropping 29 in the second half against BYU on Saturday, Small again went off toward the end of this game. After scoring eight points of 2-of-8 shooting in the first half, he went 5-for-8 with 13 points in the second half. He made his first five shots of the second half.

Freshmen Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey Jr. joined Small in double figures. Garrison put up 10 points and accounted for five of the Cowboys’ stuffs. He did, though, have a tough time containing UCF big Ibrahim Diallo, as Diallo finished with a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double in 23 minutes on the floor. Dailey was a rebound shy of a double-double in the final game of his freshman season, as he had 12 points and nine boards. He scored eight of his points in the second half.

The Cowboys enter a crucial offseason full of question: coaching, roster turnover, NIL support — the lot.