Boone Stands Tall as Cowboys Bounce Texas in Double OT

STILLWATER – The ABC Television cameras were focused on Gallagher-Iba Arena to showcase No. 6 Texas and the future NBA No. 1 (draft choice) in Cade Cunningham. When the show was over, 50 minutes of basketball with Oklahoma State upsetting Texas 75-67, the star was Pokes post Kalib Boone. Now, the question throughout much of that 50 minutes was whether the Cunningham and the rest of the Cowboys would waste a career game by really the only available post player in Boone.

There were times I thought Oklahoma State wasn’t playing very smart, but I thought Texas was playing flat out dumb in their decisions. Then there were times Texas was playing very smart and Oklahoma State was making worse decisions. One player that was consistent with pretty good decisions throughout the game was Boone. Kalib Boone finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds, five blocked shots with two coming in the final overtime, and a steal.

In the first half as the offense was ugly at times, Boone put on a clinic of solid fundamentally sound post moves. He finished the first half with 13 points on five-of-seven shooting and had six rebounds.

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Boone working his post moves vs. Texas.

Boone had a step through post move where he spun underneath the defender and scored on the lay-in drawing a foul and making a three-point play. That was part of a 21-to-4 run the final eight minutes of the second half. Moments later he caught the ball on the other side of the lane on the south end of the building and used a move to hit center of the paint and put up a soft one-hander for a 31-25 lead.

“I told myself that if they were going to be aggressive then I was going to give them a pump fake and they were going to be up and then I would give them a hook,” Boone explained. “If they were playing on top then I would go baseline, but make sure you see what is in the middle before you go baseline. Basically, it was things that I learn from (Coach) Cannen (Cunningham) and Cade. I play one on one with Cade and learn from him all the time.”

Solid post moves amid a game that was lacking much solid basketball with 18 turnovers in the first half, 43 turnovers for the game, shooting percentages of 35 percent for the Cowboys and a very ugly 25 percent for Texas. It would be nice to say those poor percentages had a lot to do with defense but that wouldn’t honest.

Boone stayed true as the best thing going as his slam dunk off a great pass from Cunningham closed the score to 54-53 after Texas had taken the lead. He made free throws when the Cowboys needed them the most. In the first overtime he had a slam at the 3:25 mark and then a little later followed a Cade Cunningham miss. He was rebounding plenty and after Cunningham nearly finished the game with a steal on the inbounds under the Oklahoma State basket, the Cowboys got it back and a pass from Cunningham just went beyond the edge of his hands going to the basket.

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Boone had five blocked shots against Texas.

In the second overtime playing with four fouls, his major contribution was defensive as he blocked two shots and impacted a third and may have tipped it. He did it without even being close to committing that fifth foul.

“I’m a shot blocker, believe it or not. In high school I made a living on blocking shots,” Boone answered. “This season I haven’t really shown a presence in the paint. Now it doesn’t matter four fouls, three fouls, two, one foul, I’m going to be a shot blocker and if you come in the paint then I’m looking to get it. Those two blocks (second overtime), I really should have had three.

Kalib Boone outscored Texas post players Jericho Sims and kai Jones by four points, nearly matched them rebound for rebound, and had two more blocked shots than the Longhorns pair.

As if he had done enough, Boone also had the best quote in postgame. He said it was all about being brothers.

“Getting to play with Cade Cunningham, Isaac Likekele, Bryce Williams, playing with this whole roster is fun,” Boone responded to a question about how fun it is to play on this team. “Every day we challenge each other, we compete, we laugh, we fight and at the end of the day we’re brothers.”

The family may not have put their best foot forward against Texas on Saturday but thanks a lot to Boone, the Cowboys can celebrate a beautiful ugly win that may end up being instrumental to extending their time together as brother into March and the NCAA Tournament.