RECAP: Oklahoma State Falls to Texas 82-79

Well...that sucked. Here’s the top plays before we dive into the recap.

After Jeffrey Carroll buried a three to start the game, Texas rattled off seven straight points to build up an early lead. The rest of that half was mini runs by both teams, with the teams never getting over five points apart after the 15:12 mark.

It was good back-and-forth ball for the first half, and the teams headed to the locker room with Oklahoma State up 39-37 after freshman Thomas Dziagwa hit a long two pointer to end the half.

The second half started off with a lot more of the same as the first half. Oklahoma State built up a 46-39 lead, but Texas continued to claw their way back into the game.

With 16:07 left in the second half, Jeffrey Carroll hit a jumper to make the score 50-46 Pokes. That’s when the wheels fell off for the Cowboys.

Over the next four and a half minutes, the Longhorns erupted for a 15-0 run to capture the lead for good. The worst part of this as an Oklahoma State fan is the Longhorns scored on FIVE STRAIGHT UNCONTESTED LAYUPS. FIVE. Coach Underwood was doing something similar to this...

...while I was at home doing this.

Props to them for finding a game plan that worked and sticking with it. All they did was spread the floor, and wait for a lane to the hoop, and drive. The Cowboy defenders never slid over to stop the ball, so once they beat their man at the top of the key, they had an easy layup.

Now, the roles were reversed. Instead of the Longhorns having to claw back into the game, it was time for Coach Underwood to try and light the fire under his team and get them back into the game down 61-50. Coming out of the media timeout, it appeared Underwood did just that. The Cowboys went on a 7-0 run in 1:01, and closed the gap to 61-57 Texas.

Forte hit a free throw roughly three minutes later to get the Pokes within two, but that was as close as they got. The teams traded buckets and free throws back and forth for the last few minutes, but Texas was able to make enough free throws at the end to hold off the Pokes for their first Big 12 Conference win in their conference home opener by a final score of 82-79.

Let’s take a look at the final stats.

ESPN

ESPN

ESPN

Following this loss, the Cowboys fall to 10-4 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12 conference. Up next, the road gets much, much harder for the Cowboys as they travel up to Waco to take on the still undefeated #2 Baylor Bears. After tonight’s showing, I’m very, very scared of what Scott Drew’s squad is going to do to us.

How bad was the loss tonight? This bad.

After the West Virgina game, Cade quoted Aaron Rodgers and told us Oklahoma State fans to “R-E-L-A-X” and I agreed with him. But after dropping two in a row, bad thoughts are starting to swirl in the back of my mind. Baylor is a very good team. It won’t be time to freak out if we somehow lose on Saturday. But drop another one next Wednesday against Iowa State at Gallagher-Iba Arena and start 0-4 in conference play? It may be time to push the panic button...