Oklahoma State Looking for Not Defensive, But They Found Offensive Help Against K-State
STILLWATER – With the chilly temperatures outside of Gallagher-Iba Arena there was not a rush of folks to come inside and check out the chilliest offense in the Big 12. For Steve Lutz team in their first two games in Big 12 Conference play, the absolute of defending was not far off. Sure a few defensive lapses but the Pokes had defended well. Help defense was a concept understood. Offense, that had been a major struggle. Constant runs by the opposition were not the result of ole’ defense but o-fer offense. Poor shooting, missed bunnies under the basket, lack of sharp passing had the Cowboys with halves of 18 and 19 points in the first 20 minutes and not enough with 29 and 31 points in their second halves. This team couldn’t help each other enough on offense.
With the cold front that knifed it’s way through the plains came sharper shooting and also sharper passing. In the first half alone, Oklahoma State shot 50 percent from the field and had eight assists. Last Saturday at West Virginia shot 33 percent and in the entire game had only five assists.
On their way to a 79-66 win over Kansas State, the Cowboys saw Khalil Brantley with four assists and he also contributed four points. The shooting hero was the big man with Abou Ousmane shooting 8-for-11 from the field and that included one-for-one from three-points range where he is 6-of-10 on the season.
It was Ousmane that started the scoring with a baby hook underneath just after the opening tip. Jamyron Keller had a three off an assist to make it 5-0 for the start.
“It was a good win and I thought Abou Ousmane played fantastic,” head coach Steve Lutz said after the game ended.
Brantley got his first assist on a three by Chi-Chi Avery roughly midway through the first half and an 18-15 lead. Those runs that have hurt so bad never came because the Cowboys had consistent offense throughout the first 20 minutes. Ousmane off the glass made it 20-15. Brantley to Ousman at the 9:24 mark was the fifth assist for the Cowboys matching all they had in Morgantown.
“I thought that our guys shared the basketball well. I was proud of that,” Lutz complimented a key improvement by his team. “I thought the guys played hard and they played well as a team. We had 15 assists on 28 made baskets. that’s good!”
“It was playing as a team. That was a theme in the last three practices,” Ousman said. “Playing for your brother next to you, and we did that.”
It was better all the way around and most convincing in the final four minutes, actually the final 4:13 as the Cowboys closed the half on a 15-0 run. Ousman had four of his leading 17 points in the first half in that run. The 11 first half turnovers by Kansas State and many forced by the Pokes defense made a difference. None were more emphatic than the last inbounds by K-State picked by Brantley who dribbled into the elbow and popped a jumper at the buzzer for the 43-24, 19-point halftime lead.
“I thought we were really good after that last four time out,” Lutz said of the end of the first half blitz by the Pokes. “We talked about getting up 8-or-10 points and we were up by 19.”
The first test was to survive Kansas State initial pushback out of the halftime locker room and they successfully survived that but midway though the second half here came the Wildcats biggest run of the second half. Missed threes helped spark a 7-0 K-State run to make it 50-37.
Just like the head coach said, Bryce Thompson drive the ball inside and picked up the foul. Lutz said get to the free throw line and Thompson’s two made free throws helped. His three pointer a little later helped even more as the Pokes led 55-41.
The Cowboys, for lack of a better description, managed the second half. A great moment at the 6:47 mark was Brandon Newman hitting the front end of a two-shot foul and that was his career 1,000th point and he celebrated it with a coach that has seen probably more than any of them. Newman first played for Steve Lutz when Lutz was an assistant at Purdue. He played for him last season at Western Kentucky and is with him again for Oklahoma State.
“I’m so proud of this team. I want to say that,’ Newman told Dave Hunziker on the Cowboys Radio Network from Learfield. “The way this group worked so hard the past few days and I loved the togetherness. Because of that, I’m so excited moving forward.”
One more time K-State challenged with a run that closed the gap to 12 at 70-58. The ball was thrown in to who else, Ousmane, who backed it in and scored drawing the foul to make it 73-58.
“Yes, it was more of them making it easier for me. Basketball can be a hard game,” Ousmane said of the fact that Kansas State does not double down in the post.”
Ousmane finished with a game high 27 points.
“They made it easier for me because there is not a single player that I think can shut me down inside. I used spin moves and would read the defender’s body. I used right-hand hook and left-hand hook shots. It was fun.”
The Cowboys shot 47 percent from the field, 43 percent from three-point range. They had 15 assists led by Brantley’s five. Chi-Chi Avery had 13 points and Bryce Thompson had 10. Oklahoma State won the turnover battle with only 12 to K-State’s 19 miscues.
It was the 13th road loss in a row for Kansas State, and Oklahoma State is now 6-1 inside Gallagher-Iba this season. The Cowboys are 9-5 overall and now 1-2 in the Big 12. They will hit the road again in conference play heading West into snow country with game at Utah on Saturday at 6 p.m. and then next Tuesday at BYU with an 8 p.m. tip.