Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton has been calling Cade Cunningham his best player all season and why not, Cunningham is one of the three Big 12 players on the midseason Wooden Award list and he came into to Saturday leading the conference in scoring at 19.1 points per game. Boynton calls Isaac Likekele his team’s leader, but in Manhattan, Kansas on Saturday, Likekele was not just the leader but the best player as he scored 15 points to lead the Cowboys in a critical bounce back win 70-to-54 at Kansas State.
The big talk was about finishing after the collapse with a 19-point lead on Monday at home with 11:15 to go against West Virginia. The Cowboys led from the 5:49 mark on in the first half. They led the entire second half and in the final 10 minutes played smart and gradually grew the advantage. Making the final 13 field goal attempts in the game was huge as they shot 56 percent from the field.
“We honestly were just focused on executing plays late in the game down the stretch,” Likekele answered when I asked if he was aware that they had made their last 13 shots from the field. “Coach B (Boynton) did a great job of keeping us focused. We were just getting in the paint like we like to. We missed some in the first half but we did a good job of making those late in the game and making free throws.”
A Kalib Boone to Likekele feed led to a lay-in that made it 41-35 lead. A few minutes later Rondel Walker made his third three to push the advantage to 50-39 and back to a double-digit lead. It would stay that way as Cunningham hit Walker for an open three to make it 58-45. The game ended with Likekele dribbling out the final 30 seconds in the game.
“We just remained focus. Against West Virginia our young guys, including myself, got lackadaisical and lost focus,” Likekele said. “Tonight, at every four minute media time out it was zero-zero. We were just going out to win those four minutes, win each four minutes. We came here today and put our best foot forward.”
“I thought we played well and this season is challenging for a lot of reasons,” Boynton said. “We were missing three guys but I thought our guys stepped up and became closer and I was really pleased for us to go on the road and win with Cade Cunningham not playing particularly well.”
Likekele had help as Walker had 15 points and three of the Cowboys six made three-pointers. Kalib Boone had eight second half points to finish with 14 points and Avery Anderson had 11 points. Conspicuously missing was the nation’s top freshman Cade Cunningham who had just five points.
Cunningham didn’t play poorly. In fact, he did a lot of things to help his team win, but the celebrated freshman did not hit a field goal until the 4:56 mark of the second half when he drilled a three-pointer to give the Pokes a 61-45 lead. Cunningham had six rebounds and five assists.
“That’s a really good coach on the other sideline (Bruce Weber) and teams aren’t going to just let him go for 25-points every night,” Boynton said of Cunningham’s situation and of course. Weber coached Cunningham in USA FIBA play to a gold medal. “The key is can he do other things to help us have success. He rebounded well and he hit his teammates for open shot. I know he would rather have a win than 25 points.”
The issue wasn’t decided in the first half, but the Cowboys set themselves up for that second half run, shooting 75 percent from the field, and another getting a road win to go with the four previous. The Pokes led at halftime 33-24 and without Cunningham being a major factor in the scoring as Cunningham had just two points on two free throws. The freshman sensation and leading scorer in the Big 12 was 0-for-2 from the field in the first half. He did have four rebounds and two assists.
Kansas State got hot from three-point-range, actually Mike McGuirl, the most veteran of the young Wildcats got hot as he hit a three-pointer from the corner to give K-State a 7-to-4 lead and then came back and knocked another down from the left wing less than a minute later for the Wildcats biggest lead of the half at 10-6.
Isaac Likekele led the Cowboys in scoring in the first half with eight points and like the team, Likekele was focused on driving to the basket. Likekele’s lay-in for his first basket made it 10-8 then when Kalib Boone tipped the ball away for a steal and it was Likekele that drove the ball to the basket, scored and drew the foul to tie the game at 15-15.
Kansas State’s loss of five players, some COVID-related had Bruce Weber playing Dodge City Community College walk-on forward Joe Patrakis and the junior walk-on took a McGuirl pass and scored his first K-State points in Big 12 play to give the Cats a 19-18 lead with 6:13 left to go in the first half.
Oklahoma State shot 43 percent from the field and not many three pointers, but they hit two of the three they made in the first 20 minutes late in the frame, Avery Anderson from the wing and then Likekele with only his fifth trey of the season with just over two minutes to go. OSU led 28-14 and finished the half on an 8-0 run.
Oklahoma State now goes to 8-3 on the season and 2-3 in the Big 12 to join West Virginia, TCU, and Oklahoma in the middle pack in the league standings. It is the Cowboys fifth true road win over the season, quite a mark. Oklahoma State will be at home to face Kansas on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. inside Gallagher-Iba Arena before hosting Oklahoma in Bedlam basketball next Saturday.
