STILLWATER – Oklahoma State finally got their first Quad 1 win of the season as they upset No. 16 BYU, 99-92.
With the win, the Cowboys moved to 16-6 overall on the season and 4-5 in Big 12 play.
GIA had a different feel to it Wednesday night from the opening tip. The BYU faithful traveled well, the OSU students showed up in droves and Anthony Roy proved he deserved some of the NBA scout attention AJ Dybantsa was getting.
Roy finished the game with a season-high 30 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor, 5-of-10 from 3-point range and 7-of-7 from the free throw line.
Jaylen Curry finished with 18 points, Vyctorius Miller with 14, Parsa Fallah with 13 and Christian Coleman with 10.
As a team, the Cowboys combined for 55% from the floor, 33% from 3-point range and 65% from the free throw line on 22-of-34 shooting.
They forced 16 BYU turnovers, resulting in 21 points on the other end. The rebounding game was 34 apiece, with the Cowboys outscoring the Cowboys 52-36 in the paint and 28-9 off the bench.
The Cowboys got out to a hot start against the No. 16 Cougars as they led by as many 15 points with just over five minutes left to play in the first half. That’s when things started to go sour for the Pokes as BYU finished the half on a 19-4 run to tie the game at 41.
During that streak, the Cowboys went 2-of-8 from the floor, with Isaiah Coleman hitting the two buckets.
Anthony Roy had a great first half for the Pokes as he went 5-of-9 from the floor, 3-of-7 from 3-point range. But during that time, freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa went 6-of-8 from the floor, 2-of-3 from 3-point range and 4-of-4 from the free throw line for 18 points, including a virtually wide-open dunk through the middle of the paint to tie the game up at the half.
Parsa Fallah got the Pokes going in the second half with a defensive rebound and a bucket on the other end to give the Pokes a two-point lead, 43-41, before an alley-oop from Dybantsa to Keita to tie it back up.
A 3-point bucket by Saunders less than two minutes in the second half gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, 46-45, and a bucket and a foul on the next trip back down extended it up to three, 4
Dybantsa picked up his third foul of the game with just under 13 minutes left in the game when he caught Lefteris Manzouksa with an elbow to the eye, which was upgraded to a flagrant one. Lefty hit the first free throw to put the Pokes up by four, 60-56, missed the second and missed a subsequent shot after the rebound.
Just a few plays later the Cougars took a one-point lead on a 5-0 run in just a few seconds. Since that point, the Cowboys went on an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to go up 71-64.
With just over four minutes left in the game, off a missed Dybantsa free throw, Anthony Roy drilled a huge three from the top of the key to put the Pokes back up by 12, 81-69.
Dybantsa made it a single-digit game with two minutes left in the game with a big three, 88-80, but Roy made two clutch free throws 20 seconds later, followed by one by Miller to make it 11 points again, 91-80. A questionable foul called on Roy put Mrus of the Cougars on the free throw line, who made both making it a nine-point game once again, 91-82, with 1:12 left to go in the game.
The Cowboys are back in action this coming weekend as they face Arizona out in Tucson.
