Oklahoma State Squanders 19-point Lead, Fall to West Virginia 87-84
STILLWATER – After jumping out to a 19-point second half lead, Oklahoma State allowed West Virginia back into the game midway through the second half and the Mountaineers took their first lead of the game, 76-75, and never surrendered it to beat the Pokes 87-84.
With the loss, the Cowboys move to 7-3 on the season and 1-3 in conference play.
"Woulda, coulda, shoulda, right? But tonight was the night for sure, right? We should have won the game, there’s no two ways about it,” said head coach Mike Boynton. “Played well enough for 32 minutes and to be clear, the better team tonight, but I hope that the one thing that our guys take away from it is you've got to finish. It's a 40-minute game. You got to continue to do the things that got you the lead. You can't play differently. You've got to understand that as hard as it is to win, teams don't just lay down, no matter what. West Virginia to their credit continued to fight, kept chipping away and they came out of here with a win."
Cade Cunningham led the way for the Pokes as he finished with 25-points on 10-of-16 shooting, nine rebounds and three assists. Isaac Likekele was close behind with 22-points on 9-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists.
Fouls were an issue for the Pokes in the game, especially second half as they were called for 14, with both Kalib Boone and Cade Cunningham fouling out and Avery Anderson III finishing with four. On the game, the Pokes were called for 23 fouls to 19 on WVU.
The Mountaineers out-rebounded the Pokes 48-39, with 19 of those coming from WVU big man Derek Culver, 12 of which came on the defensive end. Culver also finished the game with 22-points, while Jalen Bridges finished with 21 points.
The Mountaineers trailed Oklahoma by 18-points at the half in the game on Saturday and rallied back to tie the game up. The Cowboys entered half with a 10-point lead. The Pokes were able to extend their lead to 14-points, a game-high, three minutes into the half.
The Pokes extended their lead up to 19-points, 68-49, just before the 10-minute mark of the second half before a quick 15-1 WVU run to cut the lead back down to single digits, 69-64.
The Mountaineers cut the lead to just two points with two made free throws, 75-73, with four minutes left on the clock and then took the lead with a corner three with three minutes remaining, 76-75, then buried another three back down the court to go up by four, 79-75, their largest lead of the game.
With less than one-minute remaining, Isaac Likekele hauled in an offensive rebound and hit the put-back shot to get the Pokes back within two, 83-81.
On the ensuing in-bounds play, Miles McBride stepped on the out-of-bounds line to give the ball back to OSU, but Cade Cunningham was called for a foul on the drive to pick up his fifth foul of the game.
The Cowboys opened the game very aggressive, especially Isaac Likekele who looked more like vintage Ice than he has dating back to last season. The Pokes started the game going 5-for-5 from the field and a 14-7 lead, 10 of which points came in the paint in the first four minutes of the game.
The Pokes jumped out to their largest lead of the half with 12 points eight minutes into the half before the Mountaineers made a bit of a run and cut the lead back down to six. Things got a little sloppy for the Pokes after that as they went through a two and a half minute scoring drought while going 1-of-8 from the field.
The closest the Mountaineers were able to get to the Pokes in the first half was a five-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining in half, but Isaac Likekele had something to say about that. He hit two quick layups to put the Pokes back up nine.
The came to a close with Bryce Williams nailing a 3-poineter to put the Pokes back up 10-points. The Cowboys had one of their best halves of the season as they shot 53.3% from the field, dished out seven assists and committed just four turnovers. On the defensive end, the Cowboys held the Mountaineers to just 32.5% shooting from the field, 28.6% from 3-point range, and forced eight turnovers. WVU, however, out-rebounded the Pokes in the first half 29-19 as OSU was without Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and Kalib Boone picked up three first-half fouls.
The Cowboys have the week off and will face Kansas State this coming Saturday, Jan. 9. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.