Recap: Oklahoma State Falls to Baylor 71-61 in Waco

BOXSCORE

It’s hard to win a game when you give the other team 10 more shots and shoot 14% from 3, but that was only part of the story.

Oklahoma State fell to Baylor 71-61 on the road, making the Cowboys 0-9 in Big 12 road games this season.

It was ugly for most of the game, but it started out looking good for the Cowboys.

The Pokes hit the floor running in Waco, and it was the home team that couldn’t get to its feet early. OSU rushed off to a 5-0 lead. At the first timeout, they were up 7-2, having gone 3-for-4 from the field compared to the Bears’ 1-of-8. OSU was up 10-2 before Baylor scored again.

Baylor recovered from its worst shooting half all season to take the lead just before the break.

The Cowboys led by as many as 10 and held a double-digit lead three times in the first half before the Bears used a 13-2 run to claw their way back and take the lead with just over a minute left until halftime. Arturo Dean was everything and everywhere in the first half, leading the Cowboys with nine points at the break. He didn’t score in the second half but grabbed four boards and dished out an assist. He had four turnovers before fouling out after 28 minutes. OSU lost the turnover battle 18-15 and were outscored on giveaways 16-11.

Baylor shot just 24% from the field and 12% from 3 in the first half compared to OSU’s 33% and 29%. But the Bears were able to hit enough spurts to take the Cowboys over late in the first half and then control the game for most of the second.

Things started to unravel for the Cowboys early in the second half.

Baylor rattled off a 12-0 run to take a 41-29 lead with 15 minutes to go. Baylor went on a 31-12 run from the 5:01 mark in the first half deep to the midway point of the second. The Cowboys were able to fight back, making five of six shots to pull within 47-41. They also switched to a half-ish court press that seemed to give the Bears some trouble. Quietly, the Cowboys sneaked back to within two possessions with six minutes to go, but the Bears finally started making their 3s. After starting 2-of-18 from beyond the arc, Baylor made six of their next 11 3-pointers.

Brandon Newman stole the ball from Baylor’s Jayden Nunn with 86 seconds to go and OSU down six resulting in a runout in which Bryce Thompson got fouled and made both shots to pull within 63-59, but that was as close as the Cowboys got the rest of the way. Baylor followed with an 8-0 run to put things away.

The difference, or one big one, was rebounds.

Norchad Omier is the league’s best rebounder and he showed it, hauling in 13 boards (four off the offensive glass) to help the Bears win the battle of the boards 41-31 and double up the Pokes 16-7 in offensive boards. That led to a 14-9 advantage in second-chance points.

Bryce Thompson continued his streak of high-output scoring, leading the Cowboys with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

Two of OSU’s other Top 3 scorers, Abou Ousmane and Chi Chi Avery combined for just four points on 2-of-4 shooting in the first half and combined for 15 points in the game.

Following his 25-point performance in the in the win over Iowa State, Ousmane was held to just four minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls. He had a quick putback early in the second half but picked up his third foul on the ensuing possession. He finished with nine points and six rebounds but was limited with that foul trouble throughout. Avery went 3-for-6 for six points on the game.

On the bright side, the Cowboys held a projected lottery pick to just one made shot.  V.J. Edgecombe scored eight points on 1-of-8 shooting. He didn’t make his first field goal until the 2:45 mark of the second half, but it was a big one. With an eight-point lead, Edgecombe stole the ball from Avery and ran it back for a layup and an and-one opportunity (he missed the free throw).

U.G.L.Y. Neither team had an alibi for how many unguarded shots they missed.

In the first half, OSU was 4-for-8 from the stripe while Baylor was just 8-for-15.  In the first minute of the second half, Robert Jennings missed a pair of free throws, the second of which secured free cupcakes for the student section. Free throws shouldn’t be a storyline with 19 minutes left in the game. OSU righted that ship, at least, finishing 72% on free throws while Baylor was 56% but in a game that was so sluggish offensively throughout, missing those free ones is an indictment, on both sides.

With the loss, the Cowboys fall to 14-15 and 6-12 in conference play. OSU has now lost 11-straight Big 12 road games dating back to last season and will have just one more opportunity to keep that draught from extending to nearly two calendar years. Next up, they’ll head east for their final road game of the season to face UCF at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in Orlando. The Knights fell at TCU on Saturday, and this will be their home finale.