Cowboy Basketball Notebook: Take the Good With the Bad

In one of the Pokes' worst shooting nights under Mike Boynton, there were some good takeaways as well.

STILLWATER -- In terms of offensive production, the first two games of the Big 12 slate have not been kind to Oklahoma State. They scored 50 points against Texas Tech and just 41 against West Virginia. That's 20.3 and 29.3 points respectively below their season average of 70.3 points per game.

The Cowboys also shot a dismal, or rather, below dismal five (!) percent from 3-point range. Granted, they were without senior captain Thomas Dziagwa, who's shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc, with the flu, but the percentage shouldn't drop that much.

Coming into this game, on the season, the Cowboys were shooting 41 percent from the field. West Virginia held the Pokes to 29 percent from the field. They also turned the ball over 19 times, had just three assists and shot just 60 percent from the free throw line.

Also, according to the record book, this was the lowest point total in a Big 12 game since they scored just 43 points against Oklahoma on Jan. 12, 1999.

Despite all of the offensive woes, there were some bright spots and they came on the defensive end.

Rebounding Bounce Back

Against Texas Tech on Saturday, the Cowboys hauled in just 29 rebounds. Against West Virginia, a much more physically demanding team across the board, the Cowboys held their own. The difference was just four, WVU had 40 board and OSU had 36, with 26 of them coming on the defensive end.

That's against two forwards that are 6-9, 258 pounds and 6-10, 255 pounds who combined for 20 rebounds.

They also forced 20 turnovers and held WVU to just eight assists on the night.

"I thought defensively we did a lot of really good things," said head coach Mike Boynton. "We forced 20 turnovers, we hold them to less than 40 percent shooting and we hold our own on the glass against what I think is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. Credit to them, they beat us, but I am also really excited about what I saw from our team in terms of their competitive fight for 40 minutes."

Need to Figure Out the Scoring Lapses

There was a stretch from the final four and a half minutes of the first half, to nearly six minutes into the second half where the Pokes didn't hit a field goal.

There was also nearly a seven minute stretch late in the second half where the Cowboys didn't hit a field goal.

Holding a team to just 55 points, especially in Big 12, should be more than enough to win a ball game. But when a team with some veteran scores like Cameron McGriff, Lindy Waters, Isaac Likekele, Yor Anei and Jonathan Laurent are going six to eight minutes without a bucket, it's going to be tough.

Lindy Hits 1,000 Career Points

With the bad, came some pretty good points. As mentioned above, the defensive end for the Pokes was a good point. Another good point was when senior captain Lindy Waters drilled the Pokes' only made three on the night to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in his career.

He became the 42nd player in Oklahoma State history to do so.

"It's a great accomplishment," said coach Boynton. "Seniors are a big deal to me, and those guys are going to give us a good chance to have a really, really good season. I'm more excited now than I was after we played Southeastern Louisiana, no disrespect to them, because we had the fight tonight to give ourselves a chance. So, I know that we can. If we shoot our average tonight, we're having a different conversation. I don't know if we win, but it looks different. A lot of that is because Lindy and Cam and Thomas, because he practiced yesterday, didn't allow Saturday to affect our preparation for this game. Wasn't me, it was those guys. So, his 1,000 points has been earned, should be celebrated. Unfortunately, it came in a loss, but I'm really, really proud of what he's accomplished."

Lindy finished the game with a team-high 12 points, as well as hauling in six rebounds. With his 12 points, Lindy is currently sitting at 1,005 points.

Oklahoma State's has some time to try and get over their offensive woes as they're back in action this coming Saturday as they hit the road to face TCU. The Horned Frogs are off to a good start to the season as they're 10-3 on the year and 1-0 in Big 12 play.