Q Has an Answer in the Win Over South Carolina State
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State was hoping to welcome in the New Year with a new look, new improved play, and much better results on New Year’s Eve with 4-11 South Carolina State visiting. The Cowboys 6-5 start to the season put them near the bottom of the Big 12 with conference play set to start next Saturday and No. 17 Baylor (10-2) coming to visit Gallagher-Iba Arena. The SC State Bulldogs couldn’t deliver Big 12-caliber talent and ability, but they could deliver a Big 12 familiar style with head coach Eric Martin, who played for former WVU head coach Bob Huggins coaching his team to play the tough defensive stick to your hips style that is familiar to the Big 12. The Cowboys back from the Christmas break solved that puzzle 86-70 to go to 7-5 on the season with one non conference game on Wednesday with Chicago State left. The trio of Quion Williams with 16 points (the more game changing points), Bryce Thompson with 17, and Javon Small with 12 led the way.
The second half the shooting heated up with the Cowboys knocking down 64 percent of their shots at one point. The threes stayed steady and the advantage on the board and turnovers moved into Oklahoma State’s direction. Arrow to the Cowboys on most important stats, but it wasn’t immediate.
Less than a minute into the second half and Oklahoma State’s four-point halftime advantage was gone thanks to an opening basket by SC State and then a steal off a Javon Small pass and some nifty sharing of the basketball that led to leading scorer Jordan Simpson scoring underneath the basket to make it 38-38. The big concern being that the Bulldogs are a middle of the pack MEAC team and on the Cowboys home floor they were battling toe-to-toe until one of the Cowboys seemed to have enough.
This basketball team is too pedestrian, and they tend to take shots and just live with it. At that point Quion “Q” Williams seemed to have had enough. He followed another missed three with a slam dunk to make it 45-39 and then on the defensive end immediately came up with a steal and took the ball in for a lay in and his 13 and 14th points of the game to stretch it out 47-39 with 16:10 left.
Williams was the player that showed he’d had enough. The 6-5 sophomore out of Jonesboro, Ark. was playing huge effort on defense. The determination to be better was there.
“I would just say that we always start the second half kind of slow and sluggish,” Williams said. “I would just say we picked it up. It was a team effort. I was in help and we got beat on a drive and I got it and it led to a bucket. It’s always fun playing basketball. I get a dunk and I hear the crowd and BT gets a three and I hear the crowd, It is fun.”
“I think it is becoming clear there is a little bit of an establishment of a hierarchy among our team” Boynton said. “Javon Small is our overall best player. Bryce Thompson is likely going to be our leading scorer because of the way Javon plays and he is more facilitative-minded. I don’t think there is any question in our emotional leader and it is Q and it needs to be Q because we’ve asked him to play a role that needs to play that way as a defender, hustle guy, and rebounder on both ends of the floor.”
Leaning on threes has been part of the problem, but Javon Small and Bryce Thompson connected on back-to-back treys from the left wing and then off a miss on the other end and a break, Small drove inside to really open it up at 55-41 with 13:46 to play. This is what should have happened when the Pokes threatened to take control as early as the first few minutes of the game. The Bulldogs and the Cowboys got into a running game and that didn’t go well for the visitors as Small after a few empty possessions got a run out basket alone and another slam dunk to go up 57-41.
When Jarius Hicklen nailed his three from the wing just under halfway through the second half the lead was 19 at 65-46.
The game started well for the Cowboys as Bryce Thompson missed a three from the baseline, but Quion Williams alertly rebounded and drove inside for the basket and drew the foul from Jordan Simpson for a three-point play. The next time down the floor after a miss by SC State the ever-improving Brandon Garrison was persistent inside with a rebound off his own miss for the basket and he followed that up with a drive inside drawing the foul, making one of the free throws for a 6-0 lead.
“I would say the game is slowing down for me,” the freshman Garrison said as he finished with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.. “It’s slower but I still have some things to learn.”
Oklahoma State could have controlled this from the beginning but shot selection and a pair of early three pointers by Omar Croskey of the Bulldogs not only pulled them even but ahead at 14-12 on Croskey’s second made trey, this one from the baseline in front of his teammates on the bench.
The Cowboys had a second chance in the 21 first half to take control when Javon Small got hot and threw up a three from the top of the key for a 25-21 lead. That was followed by a nice defensive play by Q Williams with the steal and a quick drive and slam dunk. Finally, Jarius Hicklen hit a three after SC State turned the ball over on an illegal screen and the Pokes were up 30-21. That’s when Oklahoma State went on their game in and game out scoring drought allowing the Bulldogs a leisure climb back all the way to tie the game at 30-30. That comeback covered two and a half minutes before a Garrison slam dunk put Oklahoma State up at the under four media time out 32-30. The half ended with the Cowboys up 38-34. Nine turnovers was the black eye for the Cowboys as they shot the ball fine, 44 percent from the field and 47 percent from three-point range.
The total turnovers were 23 and they were the definite worse number on the box score. It goes back to SC State being a pressure defensive team with the Huggins influence and that has to be something the Cowboys deal with better.
“That was the whole scouting report that they were like West Virginia and would get you with an elbow and play tough. We expected it and we tried to meet it,” Thompson said as he is the one that knows the best.
“We are still searching for that clean 40 minute game,” Boynton said. “The turnovers were certainly the problem and our walk-ons thought they had to get in on the party when they got in at the end. We have one more opponent and they will play that way, so we have a chance to get better.”
Yes, one more tune-up with Chicago State on Wednesday and then Baylor.