Oklahoma State Cowgirls Go Back-to-Back with 73-55 President's Day Win Over Utah
STILLWATER – Both Oklahoma State and Utah, in the fight for an invitation to the NCAA Tournament and the best possible resume’ for position, came back from Saturday games to play a President’s Day afternoon matinee on FOX national television. The Cowgirls played like it was prime time and won their 21st game of the season overall and the 10th in the Big 12 with a fast start and a steady finish 73-55 over the Utes.
The key was to come into this game as rested as possible coming off the big effort and the upset 75-65 over No. 16 Texas Tech on Saturday.
“I’m not going to lie, I thought we were running on fumes after the emotional win vs. Tech and then we had to play again,” head coach jacie Hoyt explained. “Our kids were smart picking up the scout in one day with little prep in order to be ready.”
“It was hard, but we prepared ourselves really well,” agreed leading scorer for the game Micah Gray, who had 17 points on five-of-nine shooting and went over 1,700 career points. “We walked through and were easy on our legs and we’re still prepared. But we knew we had to start fast in order to get the game to work in our favor.”
They did and early on it was Jadyn Wooten. Utah left her alone inside the arch, seemingly more concerned about threes. Wooten is deadly with her midrange jumper and made Utah pay with three early baskets from the elbow. Wooten cooled off, but the early buckets helped the Cowgirls to an 18-11 lead after the first quarter.
The second quarter was not as good. Utah outscored the Cowgirls 12-11, but it bothered Hoyt, who wore a camo shirt with pink on front and back and ferocious tigers.
“I wanted our team to know that we have to fight like some other leopards in the jungle,” Hoyt joked about her fashion statement. “I challenged them at halftime telling them we needed to get back to Cowgirl basketball and we outscored them in the third 24-8.”
Achol Akot made a driving layup to open the scoring and then off a steal by Micah Gray, Stailee Heard finished the fast break down the heart of the lane and the Cowgirls were up 33-23. Utah turned the ball over 24 times and Oklahoma State converted those into 26 points.
Utah outrebounded Oklahoma State 33-29, but the turnovers were the biggest difference and Oklahoma State continued to share the basketball well with 14 assists on the 25 made baskets. Defensively, a big deal to Hoyt, the Cowgirls not only had 12 steals on the 24 turnovers by the Utes, but they also held Utah to 17-of-44 shooting and 4-of-11 from three point range.
“I think that has been an area of weakness for us, power plays, like in hockey, more offense than defense,” Hoyt said after the win. “We said we wanted to impose our will with our defense and starting from the beginning. We knew that would give them problems.”
It did, but offense is still fun and it was spread out. Gray having the 17, Haleigh Timmer had 15 and went over 1,500 points in her college career, Heard with 10, and Akot with 12.
Next up a day off.
“Everyone needs a nap,” finished Hoyt. I do think this helped our March Madness mindset, I think this series prepared us for what we will have in March, but we are due for an off day.”
Oklahoma State gets the extended time before heading to West Virginia with a 21-7 record, 10-5 in the Big 12. Utah falls to 17-10 and 8-7 in the conference. The Cowgirls are currently looked at as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA bracketology. They have three regular season games (at West Virginia, at Iowa State, and Kansas) before the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
