RECAP: Cowboys Dominate Georgetown to Claim Third Place at the Maui Invitational

Oklahoma State bounced back tonight with a 97-70 win over the Georgetown Hoyas, and took third place in the Maui Invitational with the win.

One of the things we worried about was how the Pokes would respond after they got trampled by the UNC Tar Heels. I meant to put this in the recap last night. Better late than never, right?

Well, they rebounded better than I thought. It didn’t start well though. Georgetown jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead and gave a lot of fans having flashbacks. Coach Underwood lit the fire under his team and they battled all the way back to take the lead 14-13 after a 14-5 run of their own. This was followed by a bunch of similar OSU runs. The Cowboys went on a 21-10 run to push the lead to 37-23. The Cowboys ended the half on a Thomas Dziagwa 3-pointer to head into halftime with a 50-35 point lead.

It was very early on that we say the play of the half, if not the game. Monday night, Cade said Cam McGriff might kill someone this year. He sure didn’t have to wait very long.

Goodness gracious.

Alright. Let’s take a look at the halftime stats.

The Cowboys started the second half on a 9-2 run to extend the lead to 22 points. In the time it took the Hoyas to clear the 60 point mark (almost six and a half minutes), the Cowboys poured in 21 points to claim a 27 point lead to the tune of 87-60. The teams each scored 10 points in the final 5:51 to make the final score 97-70 in favor of our ‘Boys from Stillwater.

Oklahoma State did what UNC did to them .

ESPN

The Pokes were led by Jeffrey Carroll and freshman Lindy Waters III.

ESPN

The Hoyas were led by Rodney Pryor and Bradley Hayes.

ESPN

Let’s move onto some thoughts I had from tonight:

• The defense was outstanding. It was suffocating, in your face, shutdown D like Brad Underwood loves to run. This defense forced 28 turnovers and 41 fast break points.

• This was an entire team effort. Everyone contributed, including the freshmen. Jawun Evans only scored 13 tonight, but only because he didn’t have to take over the game and drop 30. He got the help from the rest of the team, which is awesome to see. The bench dropped over half of the points, with 59.
• Fouls were still a bit high, but they are getting better.
• This is one of the coolest things that happened tonight.

The Cowboys improved to 5-1 on the season, and will travel back home for a date with Rogers State a week from tonight.

Overall, I loved what we saw from this team in the Maui Invitational. They will be a VERY fun team to watch this season. To come out of a tournament with Oregon, Wisconsin, Georgetown, North Carolina, Tennessee, UConn, and Chaminade with the 3rd place trophy is more than I expected, and I cannot wait to see how the rest of this season goes!