The Cowgirls moved to 8-1 on Saturday when they took down Miami, who was preseason ranked #13 in the AP Poll.
OSU led 21-17 after the 1st Quarter, but fell behind 42-31 at halftime, after giving up 25 points to the Hurricanes in the 2nd quarter.
The Cowgirls rallied in the 3rd quarter, scoring 29 points of their own, and trailed by 1st 1 heading into a very entertaining and drama-packed final stanza. Both teams traded buckets, for the most part, but Miami was able to keep OSU at an arm’s length, at least until they couldn’t.
Jadyn Wooten hit a jumper with 5:55 to go in the game to give the Cowgirls the lead, which lasted just 20 seconds, before hitting a layup to give OSU the lead again at 73-72. Miami took the lead again less than 20 seconds later, and that seesaw kept going back and forth until Achol Akot made a nice layup to give the Cowgirls the lead for good at 77-76.
From that point on, OSU outscored Miami 10-8 to secure an 87-84 victory in the Cayman Islands.
Stats
OSU was outscored 17-13 in points off turnovers, and 14 to 9 in 2nd chance points. But, they made up a lot of that by scoring 29 bench points to just 9 from Miami, so the depth of this Cowgirl team showed up big time.
OSU also demolished Miami in paint, outscoring the Hurricanes 42 to 26, shot 61.1% from the floor, and 50% from 3-point range, so the offense was good.
Haleigh Timmer dropped 17 Saturday in the BIG win against Miami. When was a crazy-good 6-7 from the field, 2-2 from 3, played 35 minutes, and had ZERO turnovers? That’s about as positive a stat sheet as you can get! Timmer is a transfer from South Dakota State, where she played 4 years in Brookings, scoring 1155 points in 106 games.
Amari Whiting led the team yesterday in minutes played (37) and was 2nd in scoring with 23. She made 7 of her 11 field goal attempts, went 3-3 from the 3-point line, had 8 boards, 8 assists, and 3 steals.
I mean, WHU?
I’m tired just typing that!
If you like stuffing at Thanksgiving, then you definitely liked her stat line.
Whiting is a Junior from Burley, Idaho, where she played for her mom and led her Bobcats to a State Title. Her dad was a professional basketball player as well, so being good at this sport is in her blood.
She was the Idaho Player of the Year in 2022 and twice the 4A Idaho player of the Year as well, and originally played at BYU, averaging 10 points and over 5 assists per game last year. She spent 2 years as a Cougar. Now, as a Cowgirl,
Whiting is shooting OVER 50% from the floor, exactly 50% from 3 point range (13-26), she averages over 5 boards per game, almost 4 assists, and that’s just in 27 minutes on average. She also has 21 steals…Wow!
Lena Girardi made just 1 bucket yesterday, but it was one of THE biggest of the game. She nailed a 3-pointer from somewhere on earth that flipped the scoreboard, and gave the Cowgirls a lead that set up a lot of back and forth in a VERY entertaining game.
Girardi is a Freshman from Purchase, New York, who came to OSU very highly regarded as a 4-Star recruit. In fact, as per okstate.com, she was the #63 player in the Country in 2025.
Jadyn Wooten made this layup with a little over 5 minutes to go to put the Cowgirls up one. She added another bucket on a jumper with 1:48 to go, an assist and multiple rebounds in those last 5 minutes of action.
She led ALL scorers with 26 points, and it should surprise NO ONE that she was especially active when the game was on the line.
Last year, while OSU had plenty of scoring, there were several games where Coach Hoyt trusted her with the ball in her hands down the stretch of games, and she came through, seemingly every time.
And that was as a Freshman. Now, as a Sophomore,
Wootenis is playing 25 minutes a game, she’s making OVER 50% of her shot attempts, over 5 assists per game and over 11 points per.
Micah Gray didn’t have the biggest night of her career against Miami, but we all know the type of explosive offense she provides for this team.
Gray averaged over 12 points per last year in 31 minutes, and has upped that to over 14 in just 26 minutes this year. So, the efficiency piece has ratcheted up a notch, to go with the explosive element to her scoring game.
Another thing about Gray is that Gray wants the ball with the game on the line. She is NOT hesitant to take and knock down the biggest shots, and when she gets going, this Cowgirl offense is VERY hard to stop.
Achol Akot dropped a cool dozen on Saturday in the big win against Miami and showed a lot of skill.
Akot is a Junior from Ottawa who transferred to OSU from UCF, where she spent her 2 years. Akot can go for a double-double on any night, and has been a good rim protector, so with all the GREAT guard play on this team, her role completes the circuits, if you will.
She’s averaging 24 minutes per game, and, incredibly, has made 45 of her 66 shot attempts from the floor. I mean, I’d miss more wide-open layups than that!
She’s also averaging 7.1 boards a game and almost 2 assists, so she brings a LOT to the table for this team.
Staille Heard is a PTPer…Hands Down! From the time she was Miss Basketball at Sapulpa, to this very day, she’s been “as advertised” at every turn.
She averaged 12 per in ’23-’24, almost 17 per last year, and is averaging double digits this year as well.
She had several insanely good games last year, especially down the stretch, but the game against Tech in the Big 12 Tournament was crazy. 34 points, 4 assists, 13 boards, 10th double/double of the year, 19th double-digit scoring game of the year.
Heard leads by example both when things are going well and when they aren’t, which is the true definition of a leader.
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Credits: Cover photo, stats, and bio information via okstate.com
