Cowgirls Roll on Senior Day and Keep Chasing the Top of the Big 12 Beating Colorado 82-65
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Hoyt made a very smart decision choosing to honor the Oklahoma State Cowgirls senior on this Saturday game at Gallagher-Iba rather than waiting for the final home game with Cincinnati. Anna Gret Asi , Stacie Jones, Rylee Langerman, Te’nin Magassa, Alexia Smith, and Landry Williams were honored after the game. As a result, the Cowgirls shook off the rhythm they’ve had of beating a big-time Big 12 foe and then falling off and getting beat by a team from underneath the Cowgirls in the standings. Oklahoma State took care of Colorado 82-65.
That said, it didn’t start off that way as Colorado came out and jumped out to the lead in the first quarter. Amazing, because the Buffaloes did it despite facing the largest crowd of the season with 4,367 fans. Oklahoma State gathered themselves and led by the end of the first 10 minutes 20-19.
“It’s the little things and as slow as that first quarter was, we found a way to pull ahead by the end of the quarter,” head coach Jacie Hoyt said afterwards. “Even if it was by one, we had the lead. It’s the little things and momentum.”
Oklahoma State got good offense from a number of players including star Stailee Heard, who had struggled over the past three game. Heard was back as she finished with 26 points on 8-of-16 shooting. One of her easiest buckets was set up by the Cowgirls defense. In the third quarter, Oklahoma State weathered a good start to the second half by the Lady Buffs coming out of the locker room. Colorado was led by Ayianna Johnson off the bench with 20 points.
The Buffs were gaining some momentum and then on a loose ball late in the quarter there were at least six players from the two teams combined that had a finger on the ball and most of them were on the hardwood and not on their feet, but the ball rolled out to where Heard was able to scoop it and took all the way for the lay in and OSU led 67-52 after three quarters.
Jadyn Wooten also had a big jumper in the sequence to help the Cowgirls.
“I thought our defense was great and forced them into 21 turnovers,” Hoyt said. “We played really tough defense.”
It all became garbage time, only in the sense that the issue was decided after Anna Gret Asi, who finished with 14 points, nailed a three-pointer to put Oklahoma State up by 20. Senior Micah Gray had 14 points and another senior Te’nin Magassa had nine points. Heard led with 26 and it was good to see her rolling on offense again.
“Yeah, they had a tough matchup with her, and she did a really good job of exposing that,” Hoyt said of her leading scorer and All-Big 12 performer in Heard.
Oklahoma State shot 45 percent, 39 percent from three-point range, and won the defensive wars in a big way with the 21 turnovers and 10 of those were on steals.
The Cowgirls are now 22-5 overall, 12-4 in the Big 12 and with a definite chance to move up in the league standings. The Cowgirls play their final home game on Wednesday against Cincinnati at 6:30 p.m.
