It was a good night inside Historic Gallagher Iba Arena on Tuesday as OSU got out to an early lead, then continued to extend towards the end of the 1st half, then rode out the 2nd half to wind up arriving with their first win of the season in the Big 12.
Before we get started, congratulations to Coach Lutz for picking up his first Big 12 Conference win. It is unanimous through the basketball community that this dude can really coach, so let’s all hope last night was the first of many.
The Cowboys played inside/out all night, they shared the ball, they got their scorers in position to score, and they played great defense. Hopefully, those are trademarks of the style we’ll continue to see as Coach tries and get the program back on its proper footing.
OSU jumped out to a 5-0 start, but then after several minutes of teeter-totter, the Cats tied the game up at 13, but that’s when OSU took the game over and never really looked back. In fact, from that point on the Pokes outscored the Cats 30-11 for the remainder of the half. To further show how dominant the Cowboys became, KState did not score again in the first half after the 4:13 mark. During that stretch, the Cowboys outscored the Cats 15-0 to give the hometown Cowboys a commanding 19-point lead at the half.
In the 2nd Half, the Cats junked it up a touch on their defensive end and showed some zone, which slowed things down a bit for OSU, but the closest K-State ever came was 11 points when they brought the score to 52-41 with 12:54 to play.
But, the Cowboys responded with a Bryce Thompson 3 and had the lead back to 17 less than a minute later.
The Cowboys scored 79 points, had 15 assists, 11 steals, 11 offensive rebounds, were 14-18 from the free throw line, were 9-21 from behind the arc, had 3 double-digit scorers, and another with 9 points. It was a helluva game, one to build on, and the next one is very winnable at Utah. So, if they continue to play well, they can win that one and gain momentum, then who knows where that might lead. One game at a time though, and for now, I’m pumped about this performance.
Abou Ousmane was unstoppable for the Pokes. He had 27 points, all of which came in a myriad of ways, was 11-15 from the field, and had 5 boards and 2 blocks. When the Cowboys can play the inside game, that opens up the outside game as well for shooters like Avery, Thompson, and Newman. So, it’s not just his points, when the offense is run through him, it opens everything else up as well.
When Jamyron Keller takes it to the rack, either get out of his way or prepare to pay the consequences. the dude is strong with the ball, and when he’s challenging defenses and making them collapse, it opens up the offense for both him and everyone else.
Keller is one that you can give the ball to when the set has broken down and tell him to just go find a way to score because he can overpower his defender. OSU really needs that type of scorer too!
ChiChi for 3!
I love the way that sounds, and, thankfully we get to hear it quite a bit because when his Marchelus Avery gets hot, the dude can light it up! And From Randy Rutherford range!
Avery had 13 points on 5-9 shooting, 3 of 6 from 3.
Bryce Thompson had 10 points on 3 of 8 shooting, was 2 for 3 from behind the arc, and made both of his free throw attempts. He also added a couple of assists and a couple of boards as well. When he plays efficiently like he did against Kansas State, it makes all the difference in the world to this team.
Khalil Brantley was THE definition of a point guard for OSU in the 79-66 victory over K-State. He had a 5 to 1 Assist-to-turnover ratio and had just 1 less assist on the night than he did points. It’s amazing how well the scoring gets distributed when that’s the case. Brantley also stole a couple of boards, so he had a nice night, the type of night OSU needs him to continue to have.
Tuesday night was a nice night for Brandon Newman who made 2 of his 3’s he tried, and added 3 more free throws to come up just 1 point shy of double digits. The dude also had 4 boards and assists, so he can fill up a stat sheet pretty well with the myriad of ways he affects the offense.
