How Will St. John's Upset Impact Cowgirls' Season?

Oklahoma State suffered its first loss, but it might have been exactly what the team needed.

Mar 22, 2025; Storrs, Connecticut, USA; Oklahoma State Cowgirls head coach Jacie Hoyt watches from the sideline as they take on the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State is no longer undefeated, but it might be for the best.

On Wednesday night, OSU women’s basketball suffered its first defeat of the young season, falling 74-67 on the road against St. John’s. Although the No. 18 Cowgirls came into the matchup as the favorite, it was also their first game away from Stillwater all season, and it might have been a bit of a shock to the Cowgirls’ system.

After blazing the net for the first couple of weeks of the year inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, things didn’t go so well for the OSU offense in New York. Shooting only 4-of-16 from deep and 39.6% overall, OSU looked like a much different team.

While the Cowgirls battled and did everything they could to get back into the game, they didn’t have enough to overcome their mistakes and poor shooting in the final frame. Although that loss was obviously disappointing and could knock OSU out of the top 25 next week, it’s far from a disaster for Jacie Hoyt’s team.

After dominating inferior opponents for the first five games of the year, the Cowgirls showed that they can be incredibly dangerous when firing on all cylinders. Of course, that simply wasn’t the case on Wednesday night, and other nights like that could cause some issues for OSU if this becomes a persistent issue.

However, that seems like an unlikely scenario. The Cowgirls brought back some great talent from last year’s team and added some more impressive talent in the offseason. Knowing that OSU had a great foundation and built on it going into 2025-26, there’s no doubt that OSU is in a position to be a real threat in the Big 12.

Perhaps playing some better competition early in the five-game homestand to begin the year could have prevented this loss, but this game could still serve as a perfect lesson for the Cowgirls moving forward. Simply put, OSU is probably going to lose on nights Stailee Heard shoots 2-of-11, and that’s perfectly fine, because Heard won’t have many games like that at all.

Ultimately, it was a bad night for OSU, and that’s all it should be looked at for now. Maybe if some of those issues continue into conference play, problems could be brewing.

For now, OSU should feel comfortable about where it’s at, and this game shouldn’t matter much in the long run, even if the Cowgirls lose their ranking or fall a bit in a November Bracketology.

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