Kansas Overwhelms Slow-Starting Cowboys to Hand OSU Fourth Straight Loss

STILLWATER — The last time a ranked Big 12 opponent with an NBA Draft lottery pick showed up in Gallagher-Iba Arena, Oklahoma State entered the NCAA Tournament conversation.

History did not repeat itself in Wednesday night’s loss to No. 8 Kansas and expected lottery pick Darryn Peterson (23 points), which likely pushed the Cowboys not just out of the picture, but out of the adjacent photo as well.

“I don’t want them to have a sense of desperation,” Lutz said answering a reporter’s question about how he wants his players to view the remaining schedule. “Because you control your own destiny, right? And you’re a good basketball team that has shown that you can beat people. So there’s never a sense of desperation.”

It sounds a bit harsh for Lutz to be answering questions as if the Cowboys are in do-or-die territory with almost a third of their conference slate remaining. OSU actually has a relatively winnable schedule coming up by Big 12 standards—at Colorado (14-12 overall), vs West Virginia (16-9), at Cincinnati (14-12) and at UCF (18-7). Winning those four would likely put the Cowboys (16-10, 4-9 Big 12) within striking distance when the conference tournament begins.

“That’s why you play in this league, because you want to play against the best,” Lutz said of the conference’s strength, which could propel the Cowboys back into the postseason conversation. “And you know, as I’ve said last week over and over, our program continues to move forward. You know, we’ve obviously fallen off the bubble, probably here tonight, or here even when we lost the other day, but we win on Saturday, and then you win on Tuesday, I believe is against West Virginia. You know, you’re back to where you need to be. But the bottom line is you have to win those games.”

Still, it is tough to imagine the program’s first four-game winning streak in conference play since the 2022-23 season, after Kansas threatened to run the Cowboys out of their own building in the first half, amassing a 23-point lead in the first 15 minutes before OSU responded with an 11-0 run over the next four minutes.

The Cowboys picked back up where they left off early in the second, as Parsa Fallah outscored the Jayhawks 7-3 by himself in the opening 2.5 minutes.

Speaking of Fallah, the big man matched his career-high attempts behind the arc, knocking down one, to finish with a team-high 21 total points. OSU’s best shooter, Anthony Roy, didn’t fare much better, converting 3-of-10 on 3-pointers to finish with 16 overall points.

None of it was enough to truly threaten Kansas who played most of the second half without Peterson, who scored three points in his only three minutes of action after halftime.

Both coaches felt like the opening 5:15 when Kansas took a 13-point lead proved critical in the outcome of the game, despite KU’s struggles later in the half.

“I thought we missed a lot of open shots to start the game,” Lutz said. “I thought we had good looks. I thought that we executed some things that we had started, that we had wanted to start the game with, and we just missed, right? So some of that is just got to be continuing to work individually, doing our individual work, and getting better, and devoting more time to that … and some of it is just, you know, Kansas is a top 10 defense in the country, and they’re very good. So again, give credit to those guys.”

As a team, Oklahoma State shot 25% beyond the arc on 28 total attempts. The Cowboys were outrebounded 41-38 overall despite holding a 15-10 edge on the offensive glass.

The Cowboys were competitive in most categories, but OSU simply couldn’t match the Jayhawks’ efficiency when it came to shooting the basketball. Kansas finished 46% both overall and beyond the arc (24 shots).

“I think, as coach said, we didn’t start the game strong,” Fallah said. “It’s been like that a few games, and it’s really been hitting us. … when we play hard, we can beat any team in the country, but you can’t play a team like Kansas, which is a great program, first half like that, and come out second half, play hard and expect to win the game. It doesn’t work like that.

“I think it’s a maturity that we as a player, we need to work on. We need to talk to each other and get that part right.”