Oklahoma State and West Virginia Play to Remember the Ten

STILLWATER – The monument in the southwest lobby of Gallagher-Iba Arena received a steady stream of visitors and had the beautiful wreaths, predominantly in the OSU colors of orange and black decorating the monument there to honor the lives of the 10 men lost on Jan. 27, 2001 in the plance crash on the Colorado flatirons as the Oklahoma State basketball team returned from a game at Colorado. 

“This morning I met with one of the daughters of someone that passed on the plane,” Cowboys guard Eric Dailey Jr. said. “She came to me with a smile and said, ‘play good out there and have fun. We really appreciate you guys.’ I thought we need to go out and win for them.”

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A special game day for the Remember the Ten monument.

I always worry if Oklahoma State is truly upholding it’s promise to “always remember.” I went down at halftime as the families with scholarships honoring those they lost. I spoke to a hero of mine Bill Hancock, the father of Will Hancock and I spoke to Edmond neighbor Zane Fleming, father of Nate Fleming. They lost so much in two brillian young men, but I believe they understand we share their loss and we do remember. 

There’s also this, not nearly as important as life itself, but a slumping basketball team that was struggling got their act together, played tough and smart in the final minutes. They won 70-66. 

Larry Reece said it on the microphone through the GIA speakers, “The players and coaches at Oklahoma State want everybody to know that was for the 10!”

“We won today for the 10,” said Dailey Jr, who added eight point in the win. “That is why I have this shirt on today, for the people that lost their lives for this program and we wanted to represent them in the best way that we could.”

Mike Boynton is now 6-1 in coaching in Remember the Ten games. 

“It sure feels good to win, I thought today we did the program well by representing the families. It is critically important that is never lost. We won’t play a more important game no matter how many games we play this year.”

The Cowboys are now 9-11 on the season and 1-6 in the Big 12. West Virginia drops to 7-12 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12. OSU goes on the road Tuesday to Kansas. The Jayhawks lost Saturday at Iowa State.

The back and forth struggle between the two teams worked it’s way down to the final minutes. It was clear that the Cowboys tightened their defensive effort in the final minutes. Following one stand on the defensive side after a drive by Small, Eric Dailey got the rebound and kicked it out to John-Michael Wright for a three-pointer near the top of the key and it was 61-59 WVU. Another defensive stand followed and this time Bryce Thompson nailed a three-pointer from the baseline corner in front of his teammates on the bench to make it 62-61 with the Cowboys in the lead. 

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Small had his best game as a Cowboy with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists. 

Free throws by both sides landed the scoreboard at 66-64 in favor of West Virginia, but following the two free throws by Jesse Edwards that put WVU up, Javon Small, who had a monster game with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists, nailed a three from the right wing for a 67-66 OSU lead with 54 seconds left.

Phenominal, He played good,” Eric Dailey Jr. said of his older teammate and the Cowboys point guard. “He led our team in the right direction. Crazy, on the boards. Twelve rebounds is amazing, a double-double is amazing. He almost had a triple double.” 

Another defensive stand and a furious fight for the ball ended with Brandon Garrison at the free throw line for two. He hit them both to put OSU up 69-66. Another defensive stand and Oklahoma State had the ball on an inbounds under the WVU basket. The ball came in to Thompson, who was immediately fouled. He’s been a troubled free throw shooter all season. He missed the first, but hit the second. That was all that was needed. Oklahoma State had the win 69-66.

Garrison led the Cowboys with 20 points and he had five rebounds. John Michael-Wright had 10 points as the other player in double figures scoring for OSU.

The second half started with the same see-saw pattern the Gallagher-Iba Arena crowd saw in the first 20 minutes. The Mountaineers had the first surge in the second stanza but Jarius Hicklen, who hit one three late in the first half got one early in the second to narrow the WVU lead to 43-39. That bucket was needed and then Cowboys closed even more when Javon Small, who finished with 7 assists found Garrison inside on a nifty pass across the lane for a slam dunk.

Quinn Slazinski hit a three-pointer from the left wing to put West Virginia up 50-46 with 9:54 to go. Oklahoma State countered with another Garrison slam dunk. This time off a inbounds play where Small at the top of the key pinpointed a pass down low to Garrison for the slam. A minute later the Mountaineers fouled John-Michael Wright on a three-point shot and he hit the last two of the free throws as public address anouncer Larry Reece called, “new game.”

The Mountaineers heard him, Kerr Kriisa heard him and drilled a three-pointer. After Oklahoma State missed one of their own on the other end, Kriisa made it back to back treys and with 6:46 left WVU had the lead back up to six points at 56-50. That set the stage for the tense finish. 

The first half was a fairly even affair. Midway through the half Small knocked down a three-pointer from the wing and was fouled by Noah Farrakhan and made the free throw for the four-point play and a 21-14 Oklahoma State lead. Unfortunately it didn’t last. 

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Garrison was strong in both halves with 20 points total.

West Virginia’s Slazinski off the bench got hot and stuck a three from the win to tie the game 21-21 at the 6:52 mark. Slazinski down again, this time closer to the top of the key for a three and a 24-21 West Virginia advantage with 6:17 to go in the half. He had 10 points in the first half off the bench for interim coach Josh Eilert. A couplie of minutes later Kresa bombed in a three for part of his 12 first half points and it was 30-25 Mountaineers. 

Three-pointers were the offensive vehicle for both sides much of the first half and Hicklen threw one in on the assist from Small to make it 33-30 West Virginia. Treys accounted for 24 of the combined 65 first half points. Then  with the final seconds counting down, the first half scroing leader for the Pokes, post Brandon Garrison put a lay up in off the glass to get to 33-32 and that is how the half ended with WVU up by one. The game would end for the first time in Big 12 play with the Cowboys us by four.

At the end of his postgame, Boynton was asked about celebrating and said he was going straight to watching Kansas and trying to figure out how to beat the Jayhawks on Tuesday in Lawrence. No time to celebrate.

“There’s no time in this profession,” Boynton said. 

I gurantee he’ll watch that KU video with a smile on his face, at least the first few minutes.