Oklahoma State fell to No. 3 Iowa State, 83-71, on the road in Ames, but battled all game long and gave the Cyclones all they wanted.
With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 13-3 overall on the season and 1-2 in Big 12 play.
Anthony Roy and Parsa Fallah led the Pokes in scoring, with Fallah finishing with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor and 11 rebounds for another double-double and Roy with 19 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the floor, all his makes coming from 3-point range, and 4-of-5 from 3-point range.
They were without second-leading scorer, Vyctorius Miller, as point guard Kanye Clary finishing third on the stat sheet with 11 points and six assists.
As a team, the Cowboys shot 44% from the floor, 36% from 3-point range and 81% from the free throw line on 21-of-26 shooting from the floor.
It was a much closer first half than most people gave Oklahoma State credit for before the game as the Cowboys led the first 12 minutes of the game, leading 26-24, before the Cyclones took their first lead. In fact, the Cowboys led by as many as nine points,22-13, before the Cyclones started to make their run.
The Cowboys kept the game close the remainder of the first half as Fallah hit a bucket right before the buzzer to make it 42-40 Cyclones.
But the Cyclones started the second half with an 8-2 run, forcing Steve Lutz to call a timeout, but they finished that run 13-2 to go up by 11, 53-42.
A dunk by Andrija Vukovic at the 5:25 mark got the Pokes back to five points, 70-64. But the Cyclones went on a quick 5-0 run and to effectively put the game out of reach.
The Cowboys are back in action on Tuesday as they play host to Baylor.
