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Energy was sorely lacking for Baylor in this game. The defense became passive, which led to open jump shots all over the floor for Oklahoma State. Pardoning a stretch in the middle of the 2nd half, Le'Bryan Nash seemed like he hit every mid-range shot he took. Add to that the Cowboys' 2nd half outside shooting, and the scoring gap just kept growing while Baylor dribbled the game away on the offensive end.
Turnovers were a huge part of the game as well. Oklahoma State gave up just 7 turnovers to Baylor's 16. Quite a few Baylor turnovers were unforced, resulting from miscommunications or bad passes. On the other side, Baylor's lack of defensive aggressiveness allowed the Cowboys to move the ball freely and find the open spaces in the zone. OKState tallied 21 assists on 25 made field goals. They probed, passed, and made open jump shots all game.
OKState shot 37.5% on 3Pt attempts, which made up 24 of their 54. In contrast, Baylor was only 3-15 from three.
Le'Bryan Nash led all scorers with 22 points. Anthony Hickey was 4-6 from three, and Phil Forte contributed 18 points. No one off OKState's bench scored a single point.
For Baylor's part, Rico Gathers was the only Bear who had a normal game. He was 6-9 from the field for 16 points to go with 16 rebounds. Lester Medford, who had recently been playing some of his best basketball, had a pretty awful night. To his credit, he had 5 assists, but those came with 4 turnovers and just 1 point on 0-5 shooting. Taurean Prince lead Baylor in scoring with 20 points, but it took him 16 shots to get there. He forced a lot of shots, and he oftentimes seemed a bit out of control.
But hey, Prince did give us this little gem:
Baylor is up 33-32 with the 2H about to start. Oklahoma State would have the lead if not for this tough break https://t.co/GHJtgJGv0F
— Brian Goodman (@BSGoodman) February 10, 2015
Johnathan Motley continued to struggle getting minutes in the 2nd half, and his lack of rebounding continues to confound given his size and athleticism. He grabbed just one board all game, and it came on the offensive end after a missed Gather's jump hook.
Here are the rest of the stats from the game:
| Oklahoma St Cowboys | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Michael Cobbins, C | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| Le'Bryan Nash, F | 8-14 | 0-0 | 6-10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 22 | ||
| Anthony Hickey Jr., G | 4-8 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 | ||
| Phil Forte III, G | 5-10 | 3-7 | 5-5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 18 | ||
| Jeff Newberry, G | 5-12 | 2-6 | 4-4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 16 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Mitchell Solomon, C | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Christien Sager, F | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Leyton Hammonds, F | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jeffrey Carroll, F | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Tavarius Shine, F | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Tyree Griffin, G | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 25-54 | 9-24 | 15-20 | 8 | 19 | 27 | 21 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 19 | 74 | |||
| 46.3% | 37.5% | 75.0% | ||||||||||||
| Baylor Bears | ||||||||||||||
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Royce O'Neale, F | 3-6 | 0-0 | 3-5 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 | ||
| Rico Gathers, F | 6-9 | 0-0 | 4-8 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 16 | ||
| Johnathan Motley, F | 2-3 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Kenny Chery, G | 3-8 | 0-4 | 3-3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | ||
| Lester Medford, G | 0-5 | 0-3 | 1-2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Taurean Prince, F | 7-16 | 2-6 | 4-4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 20 | ||
| Al Freeman, G | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| Ishmail Wainright, G | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 23-50 | 3-15 | 16-24 | 12 | 24 | 36 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 19 | 65 | |||
| 46.0% | 20.0% | 66.7% |
||||||||||||
The win in Morgantown eases the pain of this loss a bit. In essence, we just traded an unexpected road win for an unexpected home loss. Still hard to swallow, though. Baylor's still one game above .500 in conference (6-5) with two games left against Texas Tech. Double digit conference wins are still within reach, but as with everything in the Big 12, the Bears will have to scrap for them.
Here, maybe this will make you all a little happier:
Rico Gathers with a serious #motor. https://t.co/RkKpDOfY80
— Brian Goodman (@BSGoodman) February 10, 2015
Have your own thoughts? Share them in the comments.