Pokes Going for Fifth-Straight Home Win With Kansas State in Town

With Kansas State in town for the final home game of the regular season, Oklahoma State will be looking to pick up its fifth-straight home win of the 2019-20 season.

Oklahoma State (15-14, 5-11) vs Kansas State (9-20, 2-14)
Date / Tipoff: March 4, 2020 / 8 p.m. CT
Site: Gallagher-Iba Arena (13,611)
Series: K-State leads 83-54 (OSU leads 33-27 in Stillwater)
Last: OSU won 64-59 on Feb. 11 in Manhattan
TV: ESPNU (Robert Ford, Tim Welsh)
Webcast: WatchESPN app or espn.com/watch
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: XM 387

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State is looking to finish its home schedule strong as they’re set to face a struggling Kansas State team. This is a much different K-State team than last year’s Elite Team as this team is currently 9-20 on the season and 2-14 in Big 12 play having lost nine-straight dating back Feb. 1.

The Cowboys will be looking to continue their strong play as they look to make it five-straight wins in GIA. It would also mark the Pokes’ fifth win in the past seven games. Even though it’s the last home game of the season, and for this group of seniors, the program honored the seniors this past Saturday as the Cowboys rolled to a 73-61 win over Iowa State.

So, hopefully that will take some of the pressure off this being the last time on the white maple court of Gallagher-Iba Arena.

“I mean, I think so,” coach Boynton said of Senior Day on Saturday limiting the emotions on Wednesday. “It may be kind of an unintended byproduct of moving [Senior Day] up. Won’t have quite the range of emotions on Wednesday and can probably, at least we hope, focus more on just playing good and trying to continue our trend in the direction that we’ve been going in the last month or so.”

They’re currently led by senior Cameron McGriff who’s playing his best basketball of the season. Over the past two weeks, McGriff is averaging 20.5 points per game on 55.4% shooting from the field.

These two teams are fairly comparable when it comes to stats on the court. Oklahoma State’s averaging 66.9 points per game on 41.5% shooting from the field while allowing 66.3 points. They’re hauling in 36.1 rebounds per game, dishing 11.7 assists, 3.9 blocks and 6.8 steals per game.

As for Kansas State, they’re averaging 64.1 points on 41.3% shooting from the field while allowing 65.4 points. They’re hauling in 32.9 rebounds per game, dishing 12.5 assists, 2.6 blocks and 8.6 steals per game.

Despite the struggles, the Wildcats are getting solid play out of junior guard Cartier Diarra and senior forward Xavier Sneed. Diarra’s averaging 13.1 points, 4.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, while Sneed’s posting 14.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.

“It’ll be a great challenge for us, no question,” coach Boynton said of Kansas State. “They’re a good team, very physical. They’ve got two really high-level wing players in [Cartier] Diarra and [Xavier] Sneed and really good inside guy in [Makol] Mawien. So, they’ll be a good challenge like all the Big 12 games have been.”

While Oklahoma State’s looking to continue their winning ways, there’s no doubt that this is going to be a tough test for the Pokes as K-State’s been one of the more solid defensive units in the Big 12. Again, tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m., with the game being televised on ESPNU.