Instant Recap: Oklahoma State Falls to Texas Tech 102-80 in Big 12 Opener

BOX SCORE

The Cowboys couldn’t find their jump shot (or their shooters) in Lubbock, and it cost them their second loss of the season.

Oklahoma State fell to No. 15 Texas Tech 102-80 in each team’s Big 12 opener.

Steve Lutz has been vocal about his frustration with the Cowboys’ defense heading into Big 12 play, and that played out in their conference opener. When their shots aren’t falling, they will have trouble keeping up. The Cowboys’ shots were not falling for much of the first half.

OSU started just 6-for-22 from the field and fell behind as much as 16 midway through the opening frame. But the Cowboys were able to gain some ground thanks to an unlikely source.

Freshman Ben Ahmed missed much of the year so far with a broken foot, but in his fourth career game he showed some nice things. Ahmed hit the floor and immediately scored seven-straight points on a pair of second chance opportunities and some nice post moves. He finished 4-for-4 for a career-high nine points and grabbed four rebounds. Ahmed’s first-half burst helped facilitate a 13-2 run for the Cowboys to pull within five with three minutes left in the first.

The Cowboys would go into the break down 46-38, but the Red Raiders poured it back on in the second and the Cowboys didn’t have enough scoring power to stay with Tech’s scoring at home. The Red Raiders pushed their lead to 14 and were able to keep the Cowboys at arm’s length (or farther) the rest of the way.

It wasn’t just as simple as missing shots, but Cowboy guards not named Anthony Roy took and missed a lot of tough ones.

OSU started 2-for-9 from beyond the arc until Anthony Roy made his first deep ball. He would go 6-for-8 on 3-pointers, but the rest of the Cowboys were just 2-of-18 from deep on the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Red Raiders shot 48% from the field and 46% from deep. Five Red Raiders scored in double digits led by JT Toppin’s 23 points and 19 each from Christian Anderson (3-for-7 from deep) and LeJuan Watts.

Roy led the Cowboys with 22 points just 10 shots and grabbed eight rebounds. Parsa Fallah reached the 1,000-point milestone adding 20 points and five boards. Aside from Roy and Fallah, the Cowboys other three starters combined to go 4-for-22 from the field and 0-for-12 from 3.

The Red Raiders also took advantage of a 48-36 advantage on the glass. That resulted in 10 more field-goal attempts and an advantage in second-chance points of 18-9 in Tech’s favor. The two teams only combined for 15 turnovers, eight of which were the Cowboys’.

With the loss the Cowboys fall to 12-2 and 0-1 in the Big 12. Next up, Oklahoma State returns home to host UCF at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.