OSU's Only Road Conference Win at Kansas State Helped Spur Winning Trend

Oklahoma State 's lone road conference win at Kansas State in February helped spur the winning trend the Cowboys are currently in.

STILLWATER – It’s no secret the start of Big 12 play, and even the month of December, for Oklahoma State hoops was a disappointment. Isaac Likekele gets sick at the start of Dec. and the Cowboys would go on a 4-12 run that included three non-conference wins and just one Big 12 win against TCU.

The Cowboys nearly upset No. 1 Baylor on the road then picked up a solid win against one of the better defensive teams in the conference: Kansas State. The Cowboys went up to Manhattan and picked up their only conference road win (so far) to date, 64-59. They were led by sophomore big man Yor Anei who posted 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, including his first-career 3-pointer.

The Pokes have won four out of the last six games dating back to Kansas State, and nearly picked up a fifth win against then No. 17 West Virginia, but fell apart in the second half.

“[Kansas State’s] been part of this better play during this stretch,” head coach Mike Boynton said. “Obviously, the only game in the league that we’ve won on the road and we played pretty well. Kind of played to what our team’s identity has become and played really well, especially in the second half on offense and was solid on the defensive end. I think we’re just continuing to move forward in a positive way and I think guys are getting more comfortable with how they can have success and like I said, you want to be playing meaningful basketball as the calendar turns to March and we feel like we still are and have a lot to play for.”

I believe something that’s going to help Oklahoma State pick up its fifth win in seven games is the fact that even though it’s the last home game of the 2019-20 season, the Pokes celebrated Senior Day this past Saturday. So, hopefully there shouldn’t be too many emotions surrounding that aspect.

“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.”

We’ll have a game preview Wednesday morning, but the Cowboys are certainly playing their best basketball of their conference schedule. They’re getting solid play out of freshman Kalib Boone, as well as senior Cameron McGriff who’s averaging 20.5 points per game on 55.4% shooting from the field over the past two weeks.