Horns Down: OSU Gets First Big 12 Win

The leaders led with a purpose for Oklahoma State men’s basketball.

The Cowboys’ trio of captains combined in several ways to knock off the Texas Longhorns 61-58 from Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night.

Juniors Lindy Waters, III, Cam McGriff and Thomas Dziagwa scored 41 points and had 18 rebounds. Their play and the ability of young players to step up in big moments helped the Cowboys survive.

Coach Mike Boynton said he didn’t talk with any of them specifically about leading the team recently, but he said he thinks their leadership goes beyond the production on the court.

“They’ve taken the ownership of trying to lead a bunch of guys who haven’t been through this,” Boynton said. “We had a bunch of guys who got their very first Big 12 win ever today.

“Those guys have experienced a lot and have really helped not only from a production standpoint, but just from psychologically helping our young guys stay engaged.”

A huge crossroads in the game was a two-possession stretch that began with 5:47 to go in the game. Waters hit a contested 3-pointer and McGriff denied Texas any points on the next possession when he rose up and blocked a Matt Coleman III shot at its highest point.

Waters said his approach to leadership was to treat every game as important.

“Whether I’m on or Cam’s on, one play at a time and whoever wants to make the play, we make it,” Waters said. “We just stick together.”

Waters got going early and was the Cowboys’ top performer through the first half. He was 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the first half, which resulted in 14 points. Waters finished with a game-high 19; he made all five triples he took.

Although the performance was solid, some familiar problems popped up for OSU to start the second half. It struggled with ball and player movement, which resulted in just 3-of-15 shooting through the first 11:42.

Texas used a 9-2 run between the under-12 minute and under-8 timeouts to cut the Cowboys lead to single digits, but failed to get any closer.

Even as the veterans carried OSU, it needed the spark that Maurice Calloo gave it during the first part of the second half. He had three offensive rebounds, an assist and a basket in his first six minutes of action after halftime.

Waters’ shooting was just part of a potent OSU attack through the first half, in which it shot nearly 47 percent from the field and more than 54 percent from distance.

Where the Cowboys had early success, the Longhorns struggled badly. Texas was 0-of-9 in the first half from 3 and shot just 3 free-throws; it did not get better in the second, for the Longhorns finished 2-of-22 from distance.

OSU did not struggle with Texas’ full-court pressure in the first half, for it moved the ball with quick passing. On no fewer than two times, the Cowboys broke the press and turned it into fast-break offense, where they had 11 points.

The Longhorns pressure paid dividends late in the second half and Boynton said the team got tight down the stretch, but he said he thinks the non conference schedule helped prepare the team for those instances.

Ball movement helped OSU’s offense in both the fast break and the half court. OSU finished with 11 assists; freshman Isaac Likekele led in the category with 3.