Oklahoma State shot better from the floor than Texas Tech on Sunday, they outrebounded the Red Raiders but still dropped a 10-point decision mainly because they turned the ball over too much. Then, also gave Tech too many 2nd chance opportunities in the first half when they were building their lead.

Tech scored its first 12 points on 3-pointers, one on a 2nd chance opportunity, and took an early 16-7 lead with 14:33 to go in the 1st half. OSU then went on a 12-5 run over the next 4:37 to pull within 2 at 21-19.

The Pokes then pulled to within 1 at 24-23 with 6:09 left, but surrendered an 11-2 run to Tech and found themselves trailing by 10 with 2:36 left in the half.

Both teams traded buckets to arrive at the 10-point lead for Texas Tech at the half.

The Cowboys were down 10 heading into the halftime break, but despite that deficit, there are some positives to be taken from the game.

The Pokes shot 50% on 10-20 shooting but had 11 turnovers, so they had more turnovers than they had made buckets, which is never good.

OSU had outrebounded Tech 16-13 but gave up 6 offensive rebounds to the Red Raiders in the first half. On one possession, OSU forced Tech into 2 missed shots, but then gave up 2 offensive rebounds, and Tech hit a 3.

Abou Ousmane was the leading scorer for OSU in the first half with 8, but was just 3-5 from the free throw line, and missed the front end of a one-and-one towards the end of the half. OSU has to take advantage of every freebie it gets, and can’t afford to miss free throws.

Bryce Thompson posted his 6th double-digit scoring game in a row.

The Cowboys put forth a valiant effort on a comeback attempt and trimmed a 16-point lead at 45-29 with 13:10 left down to 3 at 52-49 with 5:09 left in the game. But, the comeback fell short, and while OSU showed some life, the Pokes lost on the road to Texas Tech 64-54 to drop to 10-9 on the season and 2-6 in Conference play.

OSU is capable of playing good basketball, but it comes in spurts. Meanwhile, for various reasons, which seem different from game to game, they dig large holes that are so high they’re too much to dig out of. Today’s issue was with turnovers, and in the 1st half, it was 2nd chance points for Tech.

Tech had 11 points off of turnovers in the first 20 minutes and then added 10 2nd chance points. OSU is not good enough to give away 31 points and be competitive.

The Pokes were much better on the glass on the defensive end in the 2nd half, however, allowing just 1 offensive rebound to Tech and just 2 points. That is a big reason why OSU fought back in the game.

OSU shot 45% from the floor, which is good, but only had 9 assists compared to 22 turnovers. So, sharing the ball and taking care of it was a big issue and heavily overshadowed being able to put the ball in the hole when shots did go up.

Bryce Thompson had another great game, scoring 17, and Arturo Dean had a late flurry to score 11 and was the central figure in the comeback.