Oklahoma State worked all day to get out of Oklahoma and to Ames, Iowa for the game. A rough winter storm, plane needing mechanical work, misleading information, and then finally absence of a flight crew pushed the Cowboys arrival in DesMoines to 2:30 p.m. (eight hours trying to get a flight) and the game time was pushed to 7:15 p.m. to give them a chance to get ready and eat a pregame meal. Meanwhile, ESPN could not get all of their crew to Ames, so the game was moved to ESPN+. That massive Northern storm pushing through the midwest and now southwest is causing problems. Oklahoma State didn’t need any added issues as they have been fighting plenty.
The hope was as we’ve seen before in sports that the added adversity might lead to an exceptional performance. The Cowboys had won seven of the past eight meetings with Iowa State and the last three in the Hilton Coliseum, but tonight was not the Cowboys night as Iowa State used a first half surge into a second half closeout for a 66-42 win. Oklahoma State dropped to 8-8 overall and 0-3 in the Big 12. Iowa State stays near the top of the standings at 2-1 in the conference and 13-3 overall.
Oklahoma State droughts were the issues, and then in the second half just poor shooting as the Cowboys could only score four points in the first eight minutes of the second half. If you were looking for a second half swing, Iowa State had the lead and off a missed shot Robert Jones got the ball and passed it over to Curtis Jones who got it back to his namesake on the give and go for the bucket to make it 46-30. Oklahoma State turned over the ball and on the offensive end the ball found it’s way to Milan Momcilovic, who had been quiet the first half but hit the three from the baseline corner for a 49-30 Iowa State lead.
Momcilovic had 12 points, 10 in the second half and Tamin Lipsy, the Ames product led the Cyclones with 17 points.
The continuing themes were scoring droughts for the Cowboys. In the second half there were at least three shot clock violations. OSU struggled to find good shot on possessions. Then there were way too many inside points in the paint by the opponent.
Oklahoma State shot just 32 percent from the field and they were 5-of-14 from the free throw line. To add to the misery they Cowboys had 20 turnovers and the Cyclones had, you guessed it, 20 points off turnovers.
“Very much so, we got off to a good start and they got more aggressive as the game went on and we didn’t respond to that with what we needed to,” Boynton said of the flow of the game being similar to Texas Tech. “You can’t do that on the road in this league because you will get beat. We have to be be better at handling adversity and I told the players that.”
The game got off to a good start with freshman Eric Dailey Jr. throwing in a three-pointer from the left wing for a 3-0 lead. Bryce Thompson missed his first three attempt, but the next time down the floor sliced into the paint and scored on the drive to put Oklahoma State up 5-2. Thompson later had another drive that finished for two.
Then the resurgence of John-Michael Wright continued. Coming off a 14-point effort in the loss on Tuesday at Texas Tech, Wright hit a three-pointer to put the Pokes up 9-4. Small followed on the next trip down with a three and a 12-6 lead. Thompson led the Cowboys in the first half with seven, Small had six on his two three-pointers, and Wright had five. A big problem was those were the final numbers for all three. Eric Dailey Jr. led the team with 12 points.
“The trip was different and facing a lot of adversity,” Dailey Jr. said to John Holcomb on the radio postgame show. “We still have to come out and be ready mentally to play. We have to find a way to sustain leads and I think it is just attitude and grit. It starts individually and then grow to being a team-wide thing.”
But that’s about the time the drought hit and the first scoring drought went for six minutes. Later in the half the Cowbopys went three minutes without a point. Nine scoreless minutes will erase any early lead and the rest of the half Iowa State outscored the Cowboys 31-to-14.
Persistence rewarded the Cyclones as Ronald Jones went up to follow a miss with a tip in, he missed the tip in and came back with a slam follow. Determination for sure, and his teammate Tamin Lipsey had some of that, as his passes combined with his drives were potent as he finished the half with 11 points and two assists to lead the Iowa State.
Hassan Ward was valuable as well with 10 points and his one-handed floater going to the basket put the Cyclones up 29-20. The Cowboys immediately turned the ball over, one of their nine first half miscues and Ward went to Lipsy who threw up the alley-oop back at Ward to bring down the house and close out at that point a 27-8 run.
“We were lacking energy and lacking effort,” transfer Jarius Hicklen said afterwards on the Oklahoma State Radio Network. “that had to do with us being at it since six a.m. trying to get here. They (ISU) didn’t care about our bad travel. Our job was to do the job and we didn’t get it done.”
Oklahoma State will work on getting home safely and prepare for an 8 p.m. tip off against No. 3 Kansas who defeated Oklahoma in Lawrence on Saturday. The Jayhawks are 2-1 in the Big 12 and 14-2 overall.
