Oklahoma State With 86-81 Thanksgiving Day Win Over Northwestern
Oklahoma State has a lot to be thankful for this year as the Cowboys came away with a Turkey Day win over a good Big Ten team as they beat Northwestern 86-81 in the CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic up in Chicago on Thursday night.
With the win, the Cowboys moved to 7-0 on the season, the first time since 2019.
The Cowboys have also scored at least 85 points in each of the first seven games of the season, breaking the school record set by Marcus Smart and the Pokes back in 2013-14.
Jaylen Curry led the way in scoring for the Pokes with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. He was also second on the team with four assists.
He was one of five Cowboys in double figures as Vyctorius Miller finished with 17, Anthony Roy with 16, Parsa Fallah with 13 and Christian Coleman with 10. Fallah also recorded his first double-double of the season, just the fourth of his career, as he finished with a team-high 11 rebounds. He’s now the sixth Cowboy to notch a double-double this season.
As a team, the Cowboys shot 43% from the floor, just 27% from 3-point range and 79% from the free throw line. It was just 10 turnovers apiece for the Pokes and Wildcats, with OSU scoring 14 points off turnovers compared to 11 on the other end.
They also outrebounded the Wildcats 39-31, including 15-9 on the offensive end, outscored them in the paint 42-38 and 34-13 off the bench.
While it was a close game score-wise, the Cowboys controlled and led more than half the game. They started off with the lead on a layup from Fallah before Martinelli hit a jumper to tie it and Ciaravino gave the Wildcats the lead with a free throw. But back-to-back threes by Miller gave the Pokes the lead back until just under the four-minute mark when a layup and two free throws gave the Wildcats a one-point lead, 34-33.
It was a free throw battle the remainder of the first half with Northwestern taking a one-point lead into the break, 40-39.
A free throw from Fallah to start the second half tied the game up at 40 before the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run to take their largest lead of the game, six points at 46-40 less than three minutes into the second half.
But the Cowboys went on an 8-0 run over the next 40 seconds to take the lead again. The Wildcats would take control over the next five minutes, but a 10-0 run by the Pokes over a two-minute stretch, which included an Isaiah Coleman layup, a 3-pointer by Miller to take the lead, a fastbreak three by Roy and a layup by Fallah gave the Pokes a six-point lead, 64-58, and they never trailed again.
The Cowboys have a chance to start 8-0 on the season for the first time since the 2006-07 season when they play host to Sam Houston on Tuesday night. The ’06-’07 team started out 11-0 on the season.
