Oklahoma State Takes Baylor to Overtime and then Can't Close
STILLWATER – The arena felt right after the crowd moved down into the 200 level seats and the Cowboys fans were into it giving the team a decided homecourt advantage for the first time this season. It was loud and it was powerful. In the second half it led to some powerful plays from young and old alike on the Cowboys team. Baylor broke the ice in the second half to take the lead by gallant plays and a continued steady defense kept the Pokes in it with the No. 18 Baylor Bears. Special was the order for the day as play-by play voice Dave Hunziker was honored for his 1,000th game on the mic for OSU football and basketball. Why not make Hunziker and the crowd work overtime. Overtime at Gallagher-Iba is always special. This one was too, until the final 30 seconds. Baylor proved their ranking and experience with a 75-70 win.
Last week after the win over South Carolina State, I’d asked Cowboys freshman post Brandon Garrison if the game had sloed down for him and he said it had a little, but added he still had a ways to go. He came a long way in just a week as Garrison hit two free throws at the start of the overtime and then took a feed as the green defense parted down the lane and he slammed the ball through for three-point lead at 66-63. The trouble was the Cowboys couldn’t handle the Baylor pressure and the game got back to the short run to short run parity from the second half.
Garrison again could have been the hero. With less than 20 seconds left and the Pokes trailing by one he got a huge blocked shot that Javon Small came up with. Small threw it down the floor only to see Quion Williams turn it over. Baylor hit two free throws and after Bryce Thompson missed a three attempting to tie the game the Bears added a lay in at the buzzer to beat the Pokes 75-70.
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Garrison finished with 20 points to lead the Cowboys and was seven-for-seven from the field and six-for-six from the free throw line.
“I’m pretty sure I did that in high school at some point,” Garrison answered when asked if he’d been pefect shooting before. ‘’’I was jittery before the game, you know Big 12 and all, but once i got going the game came to me. I was confident.”
“The truth of it is he is still scratching the surface of what he can be,” OSU head coach Mike Boynton said. “He doesn’t really know how good he can be. That may be a good thing because he doesn’t have a corrupted mind and he doesn’t have a rush to go somewhere. He is playing where his feet are so to speak and focused on getting better everyday.”
It was the the seventh straight Big 12 opener under Mike Boynton that the Cowboys had lost. It knocks them back to 8-6 overall and ends a five-game win streak. Besides Garrison with 20, Javon Small had 17 points and Bryce Thompson had 15.
Baylor score 50 of their 75 points in the paint and on 42 percent shooting.
“It’s because we couldn’t hit a three,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said afterwards. They did a god job defending threes.”
“They put a lot of pressure on you to take them off the three-point line,” Boynton said. “Our guys were really dialed in to getting that done. They came in shooting a nation’s high 45 percent from three and hit well over 10 a game. To hold them to two was a really good feat.”
Yes it was as the Cowboys held Baylor to 13 percent from three point range. The Bears were led inside by RayJ Dennis with 18 points and Langston Love with 17.
The Cowboys defense was constant including the second half. After Baylor got an angry dunk from Yves Missi and unselfish Brandon Garrison near the basket passed it outside where transfer sharp shooter Jarius Hicklen stroked a three from the corner the Cowboys were making a run at the Baylor lead. Garrison later took a pass from Bryce Thompson and delivered with a slam dunk down the middle of the lane to pull OSU within three at 52-49. Then Quion Williams on a drive after a defensive stop weaved to the backet and picked up the foul. The free throw tied the game at 52. Shortly after that Thompson’s drive gave the Cowboys the lead at 54-52 and it was a new ballgame.
The freshman Garrison out of Del City has grown up. Williams has been the heart and soul player for the Cowboys. Javon Small has been the point guard this team needed, and Bryce Thompson seems to have found his game.
Another Thompson bucket made it 56-54 and then Garrison on a drive to the basket was grabbed and pulled to the ground for a flagrant one foul on Baylor and Langston Love. Garrison hit both free throws and then on a feed from Small hit the slam alley oop for a four-point lead. On the other end Dennis hit a three from the wing and was fouled by Williams. Back to a tie at 60-60. Las Vegas said this game would go to the wire and they were right.
Both teams had chances, Baylor with a shot and an attempted putback with seconds left and the Cowboys defense held to send it to overtime tied at 60.
Baylor got off to a good start with the first basket coming on a three opportunity effort as a missed three led to a missed slam follow but Jayden Nunn got the rebound and drove inside for the lay in and the first points of the game. The Bears made themselves at home as thee got a step back basket from Rayj Dennis and then a steal by Yves Missi leading to a lay up by Dennis.
The Cowboys stayed even primarily on the strength of scoring frompoint guard Javon Small. He had the first Oklahoma State basket and then at the 14:27 mark threw up a three that hit the heel of the rim and bounced up over the glass and straight down through the twine to make it 13-12 in favor of Baylor. Small scored 10 pf the Pokes first 14 points in the game.
Oklahoma State took the lead for the first time at the 9:30 mark in the first half when John-Michael Wright finished an OSU possession that seemed to be making no progress and threw up a three from behind the top-of-the-key and it stripped the cords for a 21-19 Pokes lead. At the same time the officials and OSU Police discovered someone had vomited from the courtside seats and that led to an extended time out. Everybody from the facility crew to Pistol Pete helping mop up the liquid so play could resume.
Small came back in the game for the Cowboys and got back to it with a drive into the paint and a short jumper to make it 23-19 with 7:20 to go. It was defense and the Cowboys, in particular Quion Williams, Wright, and inside Brandon Garrison, who had a sweet blocked shot that led to a break where the Cowboys turned the ball over. The point is the defense was stout in holding the Bears to 41 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from three with the Cowboys hanging in close to even on the boards.
Baylor finished the half with back-to-back baskets as Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua got a slam dunk follow off a miss shot by Rayj Deennis and then Langston Love hit a lay-up for a 31-27 Bears lead at the break.
Oklahoma State was gallant but still lost and they are 8-6 and 0-1 in Big 12 play. Baylor is 12-2 and 1-0 in the league. Oklahoma State is at Texas Tech on Tuesday and then stays on the road with a game at Iowa State on Saturday.