Cowboys Pull Off Late Magic to Pull Out 72-71 Win Over Iowa State

Oklahoma State, led by Isaac Likekele, pulled off some late second half heroics to beat Iowa State 72-71 in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament.

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In an incredible second half comeback, Oklahoma State, led by sophomore Isaac Likekele, gets past Iowa State 72-71 in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament.

With the win, Oklahoma State moved to 18-14 overall and 8-11 in conference play. The Cowboys are also now 7-2 in their last nine games.

The Cowboys will now face Kansas Thursday afternoon, a tip that’s tentatively scheduled for 1:40 p.m.

“It was a battle; it’s March, it’s what you see a lot this time of year,” head coach Mike Boynton said on the Cowboy Radio Network. “Guys truly playing with a great sense of urgency and [Iowa State] played with a great sense of urgency on their side. We did the same, we just didn’t execute very much today. But credit to our cause for even when things weren’t going well, they just kept believing we could get the job done. Every timeout was positive, we would go on a run and [Iowa State] would extend [their lead] again. We’d cut it to two, they’d go back up nine. Our guys never gave in, we didn’t break. We’d bend quite a bit today, but we didn’t break and I’m proud of them for that.”

It came down to the final minute of the game for the Pokes, and it was easily the most exciting minute of action for the Pokes all season long. Thanks to four-straight OSU made free throws by Cameron McGriff and sophomore Isaac Likekele in the final minute, Oklahoma State took back their first lead of the second half since the 19:14 mark of the half with just 18 seconds left.

On the ensuing Iowa State possession, the Cyclones’ Terrence Lewis got a wide-open dunk following Yor Anei slipping to take the lead back 71-70. With no timeouts remaining for either side, Isaac Likekele drove the length of the court and hit a fast break layup with just five seconds left to put the Pokes back up 72-71. Just a few seconds later, while it didn’t put the Pokes on top, McGriff secured the Pokes’ win by knocking the ball out of bounds with just 0.6 seconds left on the clock.

"We talked about it in the [Iowa State] timeout previously," coach Boynton said of the final sequence on the Cowboy Radio Network. "We didn't have any timeouts, so I didn't want them thinking to call a timeout and we just wanted to get it out as fast as we can. A lot of the time, what you see is just in the scrum and scramble and excitement of the game that we kind of caught them disorganized. Credit goes to Avery Anderson - that's not usually his responsibility, taking the ball out. But I told them during the timeout, whoever gets it first, get it out and whoever gets the in-bounds pass, drive it as deep and as far as you can. Luckily, Ice was able to get all the way to the rim and finish."

It was Isaac Likekele that led the way for the Pokes with 21 points, 14 of which came in the second half. Likekele also hauled in five rebounds, dished out nine assists and three steals.

Cameron McGriff also had a great performance for the Pokes as he posted 17 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

"It's who he is when he's really good," Boynton said of Likekele on the Cowboy Radio Network. "He had a couple of turnovers, four of those I think were in the first half, so only one of those in the second half when were were really battling. He took care of the basketball, but his aggressiveness is really what set the tone for us to be able to come back. Then he got out in transition, he had a lot of deflections on defense and he was able to get his teammates the ball. Really proud of his effort, but again, it took a lot. We got out-rebounded today, which is just something I wasn't expecting, but we forced a lot of turnovers and continued to play through the adversity that we faced today."

The Cowboys were out-rebounded 35-29, 22 of Iowa State's boards came on the defensive end which led to 30 points in the paint and 18 second chance points.

However, the Cowboys were dominate in the paint scoring 44 of their 72 points in the paint, as well as 21 points off of 15 forced ISU turnovers.

Despite the great last minute of the game, the Cowboys struggled for nearly three quarters of the second half.

The Cyclones started the second half on a quick 8-0 run jumping out to a 40-36 lead before Cameron McGriff scored the first points of the half for the Pokes. It wouldn’t stop there for ISU as they’d go on a 15-2 run the first three and a half minutes of the second half to jump out to a 47-38 lead. That includes a 7-0 run by guard Prentiss Nixon before Isaac Likekele hit a layup for the Pokes.

By the end of the game, Nixon had recorded a season-high 25 points and nearly single-handily carried the Cyclones to season-saving win.

It was a sluggish start to the game for Oklahoma State as Iowa State kept it fairly even throughout the first half. The Cowboys forced 10 Cyclone turnovers, but turned the ball over 10 times on the other end as well. It was a solid shooting half, however, for the Pokes as they shot 50% from the field, but they did get away from the game plan that’s worked over the past few weeks of limiting 3-point shots as they shot just 29% from beyond the arc.

Despite injuring his ankle against Kansas State last weekend, ISU guard Prentiss Nixon got the start against the Pokes and had a stellar first half. He got hot early and posted nine points on 4-of-7 shooting.

But the Cowboys also got great play out of senior Cameron McGriff as the first half wore on. McGriff posted nine points, three rebounds and two steals in the first half.

Sophomore Isaac Likekele also had a monster first half as he posted seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, hauled in four rebounds and dished six assists.

As mentioned in our article just before tipoff, the Big 12 has shut down fan access for the remainder of the Big 12 tournament. Aside from essential personnel for both teams and the event staff, each team will receive 125 tickets for family and friends of the team.