No. 20 Cowgirls Get Another Dominant Big 12 Win Over Arizona
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The Cowgirls’ dominance continued with another impressive win over a Big 12 foe.
On Wednesday, No. 20 Oklahoma State beat Arizona 83-64 at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater to mark its fifth-straight win on its home floor. While a loss at West Virginia a couple of weeks ago seemed to put a ceiling on OSU’s season, it has responded in a big way over the past games and put itself in a position to make a deep run in March.
The Cowgirls’ dominant performances this season seemingly always start with Stailee Heard, and that was no different against the Wildcats. Heard scored eight of OSU’s 16 first-quarter points as the offense struggled early and the Cowgirls had some issues gaining separation.
However, those issues wouldn’t last much longer. A 10-0 run early in the second quarter gave the Cowgirls a nine-point advantage, and they would never trail again. For OSU to truly take control, it would need to slow down Arizona’s Isis Beh, who had 17 of her team’s 29 points in the first half and was almost singlehandedly keeping the Wildcats within striking distance.
Beh’s Wildcats wouldn’t be within striking distance for much longer, though. After halftime, the Cowgirls began to get their lead over the double-digit threshold, with Heard and Micah Gray doing much of the work, including the 10-0 run in the third that pushed the lead to 16.
Already having taken control of the game, Praise Egharevba began to pour it in to end the third, scoring six points in the 90 seconds to give OSU a 20-point advantage heading into the fourth.
OSU continued to play well in the final frame and ran out the clock to escape with its sixth double-digit win in conference play. The win also kept the Cowgirls well within reach of first place in the Big 12.
While TCU, Kansas State and Baylor all remain one game up on OSU in the standings, those teams still have matchups against each other, and the Cowgirls own a 1-0 record against all three, giving them a tiebreaker. Considering the season OSU has already had, more performances like Wednesday’s could soon push OSU to the No. 1 spot in the conference.
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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.