Oklahoma State's Offensive Struggles Lead to Season's Toughest Loss
Winning in the Big 12 is already difficult, but it becomes nearly impossible when a team beats itself.
Yet, that is the reality that Oklahoma State faced again on Tuesday night. With a 74-69 loss to TCU, Mike Boynton’s group fell to 0-6 in conference play.
In the first half, the game looked promising for the Cowboys. In front of the sparse home crowd in Gallagher-Iba Arena, the Cowboys got out to a 17-point lead. But as they have all season, they had a stretch of miserable offense.
By halftime, TCU had already closed the gap to four. Coming out of the break, TCU quickly tied it up in the second half.
Everything about the blown lead was emblematic of OSU’s season and made Tuesday night’s loss the roughest of the season. Bryce Thompson’s 3-pointer with 5:58 left in the first half gave OSU its biggest lead of the night at 17. The Cowboys’ next field goal came when they were trailing in the second half.
Still, the Cowboys responded after nearly nine minutes without a basket in the middle of the game. While they couldn’t build up another big lead after the Horned Frogs found an offensive rhythm, they went back and forth for a long stretch.
It appeared OSU might escape with a win after Javon Small nailed his second straight shot from beyond the arc to go up five with 9:08 left.
But the Cowboys did the thing again.
Throughout the final nine minutes, OSU slowly kept the score ticking up with trips to the free throw line. However, the only OSU field goal came on John-Michael Wright’s three with nearly six minutes on the clock.
Combining those stretches, the Cowboys made one field goal throughout those 18 minutes of game time. The Cowboys' offensive struggles are not new, but when they can destroy the best chance at a conference win so far, optimism is nearly impossible to find.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.