Lutz Proud of Team After Battling No. 5 Houston Tuesday Night
STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State basketball team did not make it back to Stillwater after the 72-63 loss to No. 5 Houston inside the Fertitta Center on the UH campus on Tuesday night. The fog and low ceiling across Oklahoma caused the Cowboys to wisely stay another night in Houston and come back on Wednesday morning.
Oklahoma State held their own in many areas with Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars. Oklahoma State opened the game red hot from the field shooting 54 percent and hitting 4-of-10 from beyond the arch including a three thrown up and in beyond.
“I don’t believe in moral victories, but I was proud of you guys tonight, Lutz said to his team pointing out that if they continued to play that way they would sin some more games. “That was a very good basketball team and in almost every area you went to-to-toe with them in a tough environment. We came up a little short tonight, way too many miscues late and obviously, you can’t let somebody have 16 points to your zero on the offensive glass. That was the biggest difference in the game.”
That was the biggest problem, defensive rebounding, but Houston is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation. It really showed up late in the first half and throughout the second 20 minutes. The real imporvement was on offense where the Cowboys found a way for more freedom of movement and getting oen shots and therefore 51 percent shooting for the game.
“When you play Houston you have to decide what positions you’re okay putting your team in,” Lutz explained. “In basketball, normally if you put two people on the basketball, which they (UH) do in almost all their ball screen defense, then you either have to attack in front of it or behind it. And I thought we were able to attack behind it quite a bit in the early going of the game and it proved beneficial to us.”
There were four Cowboys in double figures led by Abou Ousmane with 16. Houston doubled him in the first meeting in Stillwater and he struggled, but he’s come a long way.
“I thought Abou played well,” Lutz started. “I thought other than the early turnover he handled the post doubles pretty good. Obviously, when they went to Lath, their other post off the bench, I thought they lost a little bit there on their post doubles. I think he is a good enought player in this league that if you play him one-on-one he is going to have some good nights.”
Oklahoma State has an extra day to prepare as they will host Arizona State as the Big 12 hoops offering on Super Bowl Sunday with a 1 p.m. tip in Gallagher-Iba. A chance to get back over .500 and an opportunity to win for the fourth time in Big 12 play. They can give Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley a warm GIA welcome.