Instant Recap: Oklahoma State Falls to No. 13 Oklahoma 80-65

Recently, the Cowboys have made a habit of outplaying opponents in the first, just to give up their leads in the second half. At least they bucked that trend against the Sooners.

Oklahoma State fell to No. 13 Oklahoma 80-65. After going into the intermission down 17, the Cowboys saw that deficit balloon to 27 in the second and they never were able to recover. A late Arturo Dean 3-pointer cut the game to 15 points, the closest the game had been when a last second 3-pointer by OU’s Luke Northweather sent the Sooners into halftime up 17.

The Cowboys were virtually doubled in field-goal percentage in the first half. That fact alone is enough to almost guarantee a loss. OSU shot just 25.9% from the field in the first half to OU’s 51.6% A lot of that can be blamed on missing bad shots, but the Pokes were not able to play to their strengths. They weren’t forcing turnovers (a 16-12 Sooner advantage), and they weren’t scoring off them (21-9 OU). The Cowboys also got cooked in the paint, suffering a 42-26 discrepancy. That was over half of OU’s points.

To sum it up, instead of playing to their strengths, they played to their weaknesses. Without easy transition buckets, the halfcourt offense was a slog. OSU shot just 39% from the field on the evening and 28% from 3. OU went 49% and 35%.

Chi Chi Avery led the Cowboys with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds. Arturo Dean was the only other OSU player to reach double digits, scoring 11 on seven shots.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, had five double-digit scorers, but they were led by an unlikely Sooner. Sam Godwin had a career night in his final Bedlam. The native Oklahoman who started his career at Wofford, came in scoring a total of 11 points in four previous meetings against the Cowboys. On Saturday, he poured in 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting and grabbed a game-high 14 boards, grabbed three steals and blocked two shots.

With the loss, the Cowboys fall to 6-3. They’ll have a few days to recoup before they host Tarleton State at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. That will be their penultimate nonconference game before a Dec. 22 visit from ORU. Big 12 play commences on Dec. 30 with Houston coming to Stillwater.