An 82-60 win over Ole Miss on Saturday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena meant just a few issues for Oklahoma State males’s basketball.
It meant the Cowboys formally closed out their nonconference slate on the season. It meant the Pokes successfully bounced again from a double-digit loss to No. 10 Texas on the highway. And in one among the final video games in the closing Big 12/SEC Challenge, it simply meant extra.
“I mean, it’s a point of pride,” Boynton stated. “I think it’s pretty universally accepted that our league this year is the best, and it’s by a pretty significant margin. So, to go out there and play the games head-to-head against another league that’s considered pretty good, and to have the results be what they were, is pretty significant.”
It truly does imply extra, too. Friday marked 22 years since a aircraft crash took 10 lives, together with eight of the program’s members.
Boynton, a New York native who performed his faculty basketball at South Carolina, wasn’t straight impacted by the tragedy. But he’s made it a degree of emphasis that the program, himself included, Remember the 10 yearly.
“Coach Mike said, like, this isn’t for us. This is for the families that lost somebody here,” stated Cowboys junior guard Woody Newton, who’s embraced the custom in his two years with the program after transferring in from Syracuse. “We had to play for a bigger purpose tonight, and that’s what we did. We played with them in the back of our minds the whole time.”
Two days previous to the 22-point triumph, Boynton stated that he needed his gamers to give attention to themselves and the way they might bounce again from their second-wost loss in Big 12 play. The sixth-year coach by no means needed the matchup to be about the Rebels (9-12, 1-7 SEC). He’d moderately it have been all about his Cowboys (12-9, 3-5 Big 12).
And it was.
OSU by no means trailed, opening the game with a basket from senior ahead Kalib Boone and finally constructing a lead that grew as giant as 21 halfway via the second half – and grew much more regardless of a second-half surge from Ole Miss.
“I wanted to see us get back to guarding the way I know we’re capable of,” Boynton stated. “And we did that today.”
The Cowboys’ defensive prowess made Ole Miss go 23 of 64 (35.9 %) from the area, together with 5 of 19 (26.3 %) from past the arc. It was the Rebels’ worst scoring output in six video games, and whereas they had been with out Matthew Murrel – their main scorer – coach Kermit Davis stated OSU’s guards made issues troublesome by being so in sync.
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Oklahoma State males’s basketball junior ahead Moussa Cisse blows by a defender throughout the Cowboys’ 82-60 win over Ole Miss on Jan. 29. Cisse, who’s nursing a lingering ankle harm, performed 7 minutes and 32 seconds towards the Rebels.
Another a part of that was Cowboys star publish presence Moussa Cisse making a distinction in 7 minutes and 32 seconds of motion. Cisse sustained an ankle harm throughout OSU’s win over West Virginia on Jan. 2 and has been coping with it since.
After not taking part in in OSU’s loss to Texas 4 days earlier, Cisse got here in and had an affect that the Cowboys couldn’t replicate with out him. He didn’t refill the stat sheet – tallying a single level to go together with a block – however the 7-foot-1 junior didn’t should in order to have an effect on Ole Miss.
“I think there’s no question that everybody realizes the value that Moussa brings to our defense,” stated Boynton, who picked up the 99th win of his profession. “It allows you to do things in other places on the floor without having to really concern yourself (about getting beat). You can be more aggressive guarding the ball.”
And, sure, the Pokes’ protection was stifling, one thing they’ve hung their hat on all through the season, however they didn’t should depend on that to maintain them in this game. While their protection did lots, their offense did, too.
Four Cowboys scored in double figures, with Boone dropping a game-high 18 factors whereas going 6 of 6 from the area. Senior guard Avery Anderson III, who was on Boone’s coattail with 17 factors, made do by going 11-for-11 at the free-throw line.
It was Newton, although, who made a distinction for OSU – and it isn’t an outlier. After Cisse’s harm, and with the Cowboys’ offense struggling, Boynton knew he wanted to make a change. And that change included inserting Newton into the beginning lineup, giving OSU 4 guards on the ground at a time. At 6-foot-9, Newton is a matchup nightmare for any common guard.
“My confidence is through the roof right now,” Newton stated. “Some of the best basketball I done played since I’ve been in high school. … Every day my confidence just keeps rising and rising higher and higher.”
Newton matched a career-high 12 factors, with all of them coming in the first half. He was taking what Ole Miss introduced on protection, an method that was emblematic of one among OSU’s’ greatest offensive outputs of the season.
The Cowboys’ 82 factors are the most they’ve scored since posting 81 in a win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 20, and so they did so by capturing 52.9 %. They’ve scored at the very least 72 factors in three of the 4 video games – all of which correlate with Newton’s arrival in the beginning 5, permitting them to play their desired model of up-tempo basketball.
“All the coaches want is to score more than 70. That’s our goal,” Anderson stated. “If we score more than 70, then we win. We’re trying to get more possessions and take more shots so we can reach that goal.”
It’s again to actuality for OSU now, a actuality that features 10 extra video games in the hardest convention in faculty basketball, evidenced by the Big 12 successful seven of the 10 matchups towards the SEC this 12 months.
It’s a journey in which the Cowboys management their very own future in the case of the NCAA Tournament, and the latter half of convention play begins on Tuesday with a rematch towards rival Oklahoma in Norman. The Pokes received the first assembly 72-56 on Jan. 28 in Stillwater.
That was then, although, and the latest version in the Bedlam Series received’t have something to do with what has or hasn’t occurred earlier than. The Sooners shall be coming off a 93-69 bludgeoning of No. 2 Alabama, leaving Boynton with one closing takeaway in the aftermath of the Cowboys’ newest win.
“I know our next game’s a big one,” Boynton stated.
Follow News Press sports activities reporter Jon Walker on Twitter @ByJonWalker for updates on Oklahoma State athletics, Stillwater High and extra.
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