Cowboys fall to Tulsa on road
TULSA —Lindy Waters checked his footing, moved himself beyond the 3-point line, turned and shot.
The shot was no good, the buzzer rang, and Oklahoma State suffered a disappointing road loss to in-state foe Tulsa, falling 74-71 in front of split crowd of 7,145 in the Reynolds Center. The Cowboys are 2-4 away from Gallagher-Iba Arena.
“We’re not playing well enough for a long enough period of time,” coach Mike Boynton said.
Benefiting from a 9-0 run to start the second half, the Golden Hurricane led by as many as 12, but a late flurry of 3-pointers from the Cowboys’ captains narrowed the deficit. The last one, though, didn’t fall.
Here are three takeaways from the Cowboys’ defeat.
3’s company
Seventeen of OSU’s 33 second-half shot attempts were 3-pointers, and until a late run where Thomas Dziagwa, Waters and Cam McGriff sank shots from deep to get OSU within one, most of the Cowboys’ attempts were far off the mark.
Waters’ last-second shot came in a possession that started with 3.3 seconds on the clock. An inbounds pass to McGriff then made its way to Waters, who lifted a shot toward the basket in desperation.
“Just trying to make a play,” Waters said. “Not much you can do with that little time. Just trying to be aggressive, give our team a chance.”
Tulsa, meanwhile, went 6-for-22 from deep, becoming the first team to beat the Cowboys despite shooting below 40 percent from 3.
Free-throw problems
After a 12-for-24 outing on free throws in its previous game against Minnesota, OSU’s issues at the line continued Wednesday with a 6-for-12 performance. Waters was responsible for four of those makes on four attempts.
With the exception of captains Waters, Dziagwa and McGriff, the Cowboys are 43-for-89 on freethrow attempts.
“I have to go back and try to figure out where that’s happening,” coach Mike Boynton said. “I’m not sure there’s more than five teams in the country that shoot more free throws in practice than we do.”
The Golden Hurricane made 18 of its 21 attempts, including its final eight. All of them came in the secondhalf as Tulsa built and held onto its lead.
Limited McGriff
After dealing with foul trouble in Minnesota, McGriff played only four minutes in the first half after suffering two fouls in the game’s first 90 seconds.
His third came 71 seconds into the second half, but he played 16 minutes in the period. McGriff finished with nine points, his first time not scoring in double digits through eight games.