Oklahoma State’s Never Say Die Attitude Leads to Thrilling Last-Second Win Over Kansas State

STILLWATER — The Cowboys refused to die.

With less than 40 seconds left in the game, Christian Coleman saved what should have been a badpass turnover. Later on the same possession, Parsa Fallah fought for the offensive rebound just enough to force the ball out of bounds on Kansas State.

OSU then missed the game-winning shot with eight seconds to play, but Vyctorius Miller came up with the ball and drew a foul on a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds to play.

The career 78% free-throw shooter drilled all three at the line to secure the 84-83 win for the Cowboys.

“Only in my dreams,” Miller said when asked if he’s been in a similar situation before. “You know, as a kid, you dream of those moments, national championship game and it’s just you by yourself to win or lose, and that’s what I was thinking about and that’s what I did. I mean, I didn’t shoot well (in the game), but a lesser man would have folded, would have thought about the last plays, the missing shots, stuff like that. But I know my team believe in me. Parsa was talking to me. Everybody was talking to me.”

Miller was one of the worst options for Kansas State to see at the line with the game at stake. Only Anthony Roy (90%) has a better free-throw percentage this season, but no one on the team has made more free throws than Miller (62).

“VJ (Miller) obviously just took advantage of the end of the game where people are just so cognizant of not trying to give up the three and lose,” OSU coach Steve Lutz said. “And he did a good job with the shot fake and the young man bit on it and fouled him.”

The game was a nail-biter throughout as neither team led by more than four points for the last 14 minutes. That was largely because the Cowboys went cold beyond the arc, knocking down only 3-of-12 second-half attempts.

“We didn’t shoot great as a team today,” Fallah said, discussing Oklahoma State’s ability to earn multiple second chances on the Cowboys’ final possession. “And I think your true personality reveals when you’re not making shots, because it’s going to come down to playing hard and rebounding the ball like do the dirty plays that most players don’t want to do, and I think we did it as a team tonight. So I’m really proud of our team for not giving up and keep fighting the whole game.”

Anthony Roy didn’t get the start for the first time in 11 games, but that didn’t break his other streak as he finished with a game-high 23 points marking the 12th consecutive game that he scored at least 14 points.

Offensive rebounds were a bigger factor than normal, as both teams finished with at least 13. The Wildcats turned those 13 into 16 second-chance points while the Cowboys added 23 on 16 offensive rebounds. To the surprise of no one who regularly watches the Cowboys, Fallah owned the paint finishing with seven offensive rebounds (nine total) and 17 points.

Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz decided to run a bigger lineup for large stretches on Saturday night, which led to a 11-point finish from Andrija Vukovic which tied his career high. His night looks even more important considering that with seven minutes left in the first half, he was actually the team’s leading scorer.

Oklahoma State hits the road on Tuesday to face a TCU (11-7, 1-4 Big 12) team on a four-game losing streak including a 3-point loss to Utah which is by far the worst conference team in the NET rankings by a sizeable amount (47 spots lower than the rest at time of writing). There the Cowboys will chase Lutz’s 101st career victory as a head coach after he hit No. 100 on Saturday making him 100-57.

“I am not the guy who ever believed that he’d be lucky enough to be the head coach at Oklahoma State and coaching in the Big 12,” Lutz said. “And have a team that I do believe if we do better defensively, can make a run in the 12 and get to the NCAA Tournament.”