Oklahoma State dropped its final preseason exhibition 82-65 to Wisconsin on the road in Madison, WI.
“We missed all those point-blank shots early, we missed wide-open threes early,” Steve Lutz said. “I thought we executed offense early and we didn’t reward ourselves, and then we didn’t have enough grit and toughness on the other end of the floor to lock down defensively. You’re gonna have nights where you shoot 20% from the 3 [point line,] that’s no big deal, but at the end of the day you’ve got to have enough grit and toughness on the defensive side of the ball to be able to gut it out and keep it close so that when things even out a bit offensively in the second half, you put yourself in a position to be successful.”
Two Cowboys didn’t play in the game, point guard Kanye Clary and forward Luke Bogavac, with Jordan Burks playing limited minutes. That marked two-straight exhibition games missed by both Clary and Bogavac.
Turnovers and poor shooting from beyond the arc doomed the Pokes as they finished with 22 turnovers and shot just 21% from 3-point range on 5-of-24 shooting. That’s compared to 44% shooting from 3-point range and 15 turnovers for the Badgers.
As a team, the Pokes shot 40% from the floor on 22-of-55 shooting and 80% from the free throw line on 16-of-20 shooting. They outrebounded the Badgers 38-36 and outscored them 24-12 in the paint, but it was the Badgers outscoring the Pokes 39-14 off the bench.
Center Julius Halaifonua led the way for the Pokes with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, 1-of-1 from 3-point range and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. It was guard Kashie Natt who led the Pokes in rebounds with eight and four assists. He had 10 points, but seven of those points came from the free throw line.
Freshman Anthony Felesi finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting with four rebounds and Jacob Walker finished with 12 points.
The Cowboys start their 2026-27 season on Monday, Nov. 2 and they play host to Incarnate Word.
