No Fallah and Moustapha Thiam and Cincinnati Dominate Oklahoma State 91-68
Without big forward and top player Parsa Fallah, Oklahoma State was in a bunch of trouble going against the big front line of the Cincinnati Bearcats and that was confirmed from the opening tip. Oklahoma State fell behind early and were down multiple times by 30 points or more in falling 91-68. The Cowboys record slips to 17-12 and worse to 5-11 in Big 12 Conference play.
“The thing about it is Jizzle James and Danny Thomas can really shoot the basketball. We knew that coming in, we played them at home last year and played them in the (Big 12) tournament,” Oklahoma State head coach Steve Lutz said in postgame. “It wasn’t like we weren’t guarding them. We backed off Thiam and Baba (Miller). We should not have allowed them to have those shots, ut we did and they made them. They’ve been playing well lately.
“Losing Parsa is a big blow to our team and to our program and we have to figure out a way now to play without him,” Lutz added. “This was a recipe for a tough afternoon, but we have to learn how to be more tough and play better.”
Cincinnati’s Day Day Thomas matched his career-best hitting seven 3-pointers and scored a season-high 26 points. It was 7-2 Moustapha Thiam that dominated in the paint with a double-double of 24 points and 15 rebounds. The hometown Bearcats led at halftime 51-33 and quickly expanded it in the second half and put the Cowboys away for good.
Oklahoma State shot 40 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range, but Cincinnati was 47 percent from the field and 14-of-34 from beyond the arch paced by Thomas and his career afternoon.
Cincinnati making a late pitch for the NCAA Tournament improved to 16-13 and an even .500 in the Big 12 at 8-8. The Bearcats have won five of their last six games including at Kansas and home with Texas Tech.
Vyctorius Miller scored 15 points to lead the Pokes, which has lost six of their last seven. They beat West Virginia in overtime on Wednesday, but lost Fallah to an ACL tear when he landed awkward on a late game clinching slam dunk. Kanye Clary and Jaylen Curry each added 11 points and Andrija Vukovic scored 10.
Oklahoma State stays on the road and will play at UCF on Tuesday night before closing the regular season at home next Saturday with Houston.
