Oklahoma State Holds Off Surging DePaul for 82-78 Third-Place Finish

Oklahoma State held off a surging DePaul team in the consolation game of the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship for an 82-78 win and a third-place finish.

With the win, the Cowboys move to 3-2 on the season and will host Tulsa this coming Friday, Nov. 25, for a 7 p.m. CT tip.

“Just proud of the guys,” head coach Mike Boynton said after the game. “Obviously, we managed to build a pretty good lead, which shows our staff is doing a pretty good job of preparing our guys for our opponents. Getting off to a great start each and every game. Finished better, but obviously there’s some moments in the game where we’ve got to clean up. There’s an alternative to what happened at the end today and we’re certainly thankful that we’re able to get out of here with a win against a quality opponent and we’ll go forward and try to get better from here.”

As with the game against UCF, it was a tale of two halves for the Pokes as they started the game going 12-of-16 from the field and leading by as much as 18 points, 23-5, with 11:46 remaining in the first half. After two free throws and a layup by the Blue Demons, the Cowboys got back to an 18-point lead at the 10:17 mark following two quick buckets from Bryce Thompson and Moussa Cisse.

The Cowboys kept the game, for the most part, as a double-digit game for most of the first half, going into the break with a 44-36 lead.

That’s when DePaul started to make its run. The Cowboys kept the lead for the first 12 and a half minutes of the second half before the Blue Demons hit four-straight free throws and a layup to tie the game for the first time since the beginning of the game, 66-66, with 7:42 left in the game. They’d take their first lead of the game with 5:11 left in the game, 69-68, then again 73-72, before the Cowboys took the lead back and never trailed again.

“It was big,” Boynton said of the team hitting buckets down the stretch. “I don’t want to be dismissive of anything, but this time of year, yes, the results matter, but it’s really about learning about yourself. Learning who you are, learning who you can become, learning the things that may or may not work from a lineup standpoint, from an offensive standpoint and defensive standpoint, and that’s where we are. And every team, to be honest, is probably in that same stage trying to figure out how they’re going to ultimately play to win, but to certainly find a way as the game got tied there a couple times late, to come up with some big baskets, to make free throws; we dealt with a lot of foul trouble too. So, that was certainly a factor in the game, but the guys found a way, gutted it out to get out of here one and one.”

Kalib Boone led the way in scoring for the Pokes as he finished with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 3-of-3 from the free throw line, before fouling out with 4:49 left in the game. He also had five rebounds.

Avery Anderson III was next on the stat sheet in scoring as he finished with 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor and 7-of-9 from the free throw line. He also finished with four fouls and four turnovers.

Both John-Michael Wright and Tyreek Smith finished the game with double figures as they finished with 14 points and 11 points respectively.

Fouls and turnovers were a problem for the Cowboys as they finished with 22 fouls and 17 turnovers, with Anderson III and Cisse finishing with four fouls apiece, Boone fouling out and Thompson, Caleb Asberry and Quion Williams each finishing with three fouls.

It was, however, fairly close when it came to trips to the free throw line as DePaul went 27-of-33 from the charity stripe and Oklahoma State 21-of-28.