Oklahoma State basketball vs. South Carolina State: Three takeaways from Cowboys' win
STILLWATER — In the final game of 2023, OSU came out with a win.
The Cowboys defeated South Carolina State, 86-70, at Gallagher-Iba Arena on Sunday afternoon, but the Bulldogs gave them a game for a while. The lead went back and forth for much of the first half, and SCSU tied the game up early in the second half before OSU pulled away.
The Cowboys end nonconference play Wednesday at home against Chicago State.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
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Quion Williams playing well
The Cowboys (7-5) needed a spark, and Williams provided it.
With the Cowboys clinging to a 43-39 lead three minutes into the second half, Eric Dailey Jr. missed a 3-pointer, and Williams snagged the rebound off the rim and finished with a one-hand jam.
“It’s crazy how athletic he is,” OSU center Brandon Garrison said.
Eight seconds later, Williams stole a SCSU pass near half court and laid it up to give OSU four quick points and an eight-point lead in less than 10 seconds.
Before Williams’ sequence, OSU was still in a struggle to pull away from the Bulldogs (4-12), who tied the game early into the second half. The New Year’s Eve crowd of 7,210 was looking to get into the game, and it found it with Williams.
“We always start of the second half off kinda slow and sluggish,” Williams said. “I’d just say we picked it up. That’s all it was.”
Those four points began a 14-2 for the Cowboys that gave them breathing room and a 57-41 lead toward the midway point of the second half, OSU’s largest lead of the game to that point.
Williams was second on the team with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, and he led the team with 10 rebounds, including four offensive boards, for his second double-double of the season.
“I don’t think there’s any question who our emotional leader is, and who kinda drives the energy of our team,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “It’s Q. And it’s good that it’s Q, because we ask him to play a role that needs to play that way, in terms of being a defender, hustle guy, a rebounder on both ends of the floor.”
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Cowboys becoming 3-point specialists
The 3-point shot has quietly become a specialty of the Cowboys.
Coming into the season – and even through the early part of the season – 3-point shooting had been problematic. But the Cowboys shot 13 for 27 from deep on Sunday. A dozen games into the season, OSU has a 37.2% 3-point percentage, which ranks 46th in the country as postgame.
The Cowboys have made at least 13 3s in each of the past three games after having made 10 or more 3s in only three of their first nine games.
Bryce Thompson continued to find his shot from deep, as he went 4 for 9. He is shooting 42.8% from behind the arc, good for second-best on the team of players who have attempted more than 15, behind only Javon Small, who went 2 for 4 and is at a 43.1% clip.
“I try not to get satisfied with that and try to just keep it going,” Thompson said. “I’m just taking shots I work on, and they’re going in.”
Jarius Hicklen went 3 for 6 from the 3-point line, and John-Michael Wright, Dailey and Williams each hit a 3. A common denominator in the 3-point barrage has been ball movement. OSU has had more than 20 assists in each of the past three games, including 21 on Sunday.
“I thought our ball movement when we moved offensively was really good,” Boynton said. “And obviously, I thought we shot the ball pretty well again from 3.”
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Turnovers and sloppy play still keeping games tight
The Cowboys have some real opponents coming up. After Chicago State, No. 17 Baylor comes to Stillwater to begin Big 12 play on Jan. 6.
Sunday was a chance for the Cowboys to get an easy win against a SCSU squad that has suffered a 44-point loss to South Florida, a 17-point loss to Samford, a 20-point loss to Tulsa and an 18-point loss to Missouri State. The Bulldogs are ranked 335th out of 362 teams in KenPom.
OSU eventually pulled away comfortably, but it let the Bulldogs linger around into the second half, thanks to 23 turnovers.
With eight minutes left in the first half, OSU led 30-21 – its largest lead to that point – and had the chance to cruise past the Bulldogs and coast through the second half. Instead, the Cowboys gave the Bulldogs some life.
“Certainly, the turnovers were a problem,” Boynton said.
In the next four and a half minutes, SCSU went on a 9-2 run, and OSU had five turnovers. The Cowboys started the second half with two turnovers on their first two possessions and called a timeout 53 seconds into the half with the score tied at 38.
“A lot of it was we weren’t just cutting to the ball well enough,” Boynton said.
It was all OSU from there, but the Cowboys made the game tighter than anticipated.
“We did things really well in some segments,” Boynton said. “Still searching for that really clean, 40-minute game, but I thought for the most part our effort was really good.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball beats South Carolina State
