Recap: Late game woes doom OSU again in Lawrence, Pokes fall 84-72

After the Cowboys swept the Jayhawks in the regular season last year you know they would have a little more conviction to defend the Phog in this one. That and the Jayhawks really needed this one to stay in range of conference leader Kansas State after losing to them earlier in the week.

Unfortunately, the Cowboys were unable to recapture the magic they found last year against Kansas in Lawrence and they fell despite a 22 point, 7 rebound day from the Crime Dawg, Cameron McGriff.

The Cowboys also had 14, 13, 11, and 8 points contrinuted by Isaac Likekele. Lindy Waters III, Thomas Dziagwa, and Yor Anei respectively. That’s a combined 68 points from the Cowboys’ starters. Unfortunately the bench was only able to contribute 4 points combined.

And that’s the problem the Pokes have faced as of late. It sounds like a broken record, but the Pokes just literally don’t have the bodies on the bench to finish these tough Big 12 games. The Cowboys were again able to keep it close through the half (tied at 36), and really even through the first 30 minutes. Unfortunately Kansas caught fire late in the second half and the Pokes didn’t have enough left in the tank to keep throwing the counter punches they had been throwing to that point.

Kansas was led to their 84-72 victory by Dedrick Lawson, Ochai Agbaji, and Devon Dotson with 25, 23, and 18 points respectively. The Cowboys also got out-rebounded 38-27.

The silver lining here is that Likekele and Anei continue to grow into their high major game and are already solid to high level contributors. McGriff and Waters will continue to anchor this team into next season, and with some high level reinforcements coming in next year, the future still looks very bright under Coach Boynton.

This season was always going to be a little bit of a building year with so many new and young players, but with suspensions it has gotten even more difficult. Hang in there Cowboys fans.