Oklahoma State's Offensive Woes Lead to 69-50 Blowout Loss to West Virginia

Another bad offensive game in Big 12 play for Oklahoma State as the Pokes lost by 19 to West Virginia on the road, 69-50.

With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 8-5 overall play and 0-2 in Big 12 play.

“Hats off to West Virginia, defensively in the first half, that was a phenomenal job on their part,” head coach Steve Lutz said after the game. “They turned us over; they got us out of what we were doing, and they deserve all the credit for that.

“You can’t run offense if you turn the basketball over and they turned us over, it’s very simple. It’s a simple game: if you give the other team more possessions than you, you’re not going to win the game. Our guys weren’t strong with the ball, [WVU} had great hands in ball screens, they had great hands when guarding the ball, they had deflections, and they turned those into turnovers and points. We turned them over 15 times and got 12 points out of it. They got 20 points out of our 17 [turnovers.] You just look across the stat sheet at their offensive rebounding rate and what they turned into second-chance points and their turnovers into points, you can’t win anywhere playing that way.”

Marchelus Avery led the way for the Pokes with 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the floor, 3-of-11 from 3-point range and 4-of-6 from the free throw line.

Abu Ousmane had 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting with 11 rebounds.

Former Cowboy point guard, Javon Small, dominated the game from start to finish as he dropped 24 points on the Pokes with 11 rebounds and four assists and three steals.

As a team, the Cowboys shot just 33% from the floor, 14% from 3-point range and 55% from the free throw line. They were outrebounded 40-38 and turned the ball over 17 times, leading to 20 points on the other end.

It was a rough start offensively to the game for the Pokes in the first four minutes as they turned the ball over twice and recorded three fouls before they hit their first bucket. But the first bucket was a nice one as Robert Jennings II hit a transition fastbreak layup and the and one to make it a 5-3 game. 

Then the flood gates opened for the Mountaineers as they’d go on a 15-3 run over the next four minutes. Avery hit a free throw at the 13:48 mark, then Ousmane a layup at the 11:08 mark, the first field goal since the 16:39 mark.

Thompson hit just one of two free throws following a technical foul on WVU freshman Jonathan Powell following a big three from Javon Small. 

From Ousmane’s last bucket, the Mountaineers went on a 20-1 run in less than five minutes to go up 30-7. 

Avery got hot with six minutes left in the first half as he hit the first field goal since the 11:08 mark, a layup with 5:45 left. He followed that up with two-straight 3-pointers to make it 32-15 before DeVries called a time out, an 8-0 run by the Pokes. 

But the Mountaineers responded quickly going on a 12-2 run to extend their lead to 44-17. 

The Cowboys played considerably better in the second half, starting the first 10 minutes outscoring the Mountaineers 16-11, but that made it a 57-36 game with 10:25 left in the game.

They shot 42% from the field in the second half, with Ousmane leading the way with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and seven rebounds in that frame.