How 'it all just fell into place' for Hannah Gusters, Oklahoma State in win over Texas Tech

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State’s Hannah Gusters had been doing most of her work near the basket on Wednesday night.

But early in the fourth quarter, the 6-foot-5 center moved toward the free throw line, took a pass from point guard Anna Gret Asi, turned around and smoothly drained the 15-foot jump shot.

But Gusters was just getting hot.

That was her first bucket of the fourth quarter, but she went on to score 11 of her team-high 19 points in the final period as the Cowgirls closed the door on Texas Tech for a 71-58 win at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

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It was the third straight win for Oklahoma State (10-5, 3-1 Big 12), which had four scorers in double-figures. Freshman Stailee Heard had 12 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting performance, plus four rebounds and four assists.

The Cowgirls committed 21 turnovers against the dogged full-court press of Texas Tech (13-4, 2-2). But Tech managed just 13 points off those turnovers, while OSU turned the 14 turnovers it forced into 21 points.

Here are three takeaways from the Cowgirls’ victory:

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Hannah Gusters comes up big

The Cowgirls used defense and strong 3-point shooting to build a lead that peaked at 19, but after a wave of turnovers in the third quarter, it was Gusters who settled the offense down with her strong fourth quarter.

“Coach (Jacie Hoyt) drew some things up for me and my teammates played out of it, got the right angles,” Gusters said. “I posted deep, like my coaches had been on me about. I just went up to finish. It just all fell into place.”

Gusters was 8-of-11 from the floor and hit all three of her free throws for her fifth double-digit scoring effort in her seven games as a Cowgirl. Gusters, a junior, had to sit out a year after transferring from LSU to OSU in December 2022. She had previously transferred from Baylor to LSU for the 2021-22 season.

She is now averaging 15.0 points per game and is shooting 57.0% from the floor this season.

“We felt like we could go inside to her going into the game, but the way the first half played out, our team was doing a really good job of breaking the press for kickout 3s,” Hoyt said. “You don’t ever wanna stop that momentum.

“But we felt like we had an advantage inside and wanted to get the ball in to her. Her teammates did a great job of finding her and she was much better in this game of getting better position on the floor, and had some tough finishes, too.”

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Filling in for Heard

One of the most crucial stretches of the first half came after Heard went to the bench with her second foul. The Cowgirls led 17-8 with 7:57 left in the second quarter.

Heard had been the Cowgirls’ motor to that point, with seven points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal. She and Asi, who are primary ball-handlers, both faced foul trouble in the first half.

But after Heard went out, the Cowgirls quickly got 3-pointers from Rylee Langerman and Lior Garzon to widen the lead to 23-8, keeping the Red Raiders at a distance the rest of the first half.

“Against a team like Tech that presses the whole game, that was really concerning,” Hoyt said of Heard’s early foul trouble. “I am so proud of our kids for the way they handled their pressure. We’ve been talking a lot the last couple weeks about staying neutral mentally, not letting our emotions get too high or too low.

“If something good happens, let’s get back to neutral. If something bad happens, we gotta get back to neutral. You’ve been able to see that in these last few games of our kids being so mature and poised no matter what, good or bad. I thought that really carried us through when Stailee got those early fouls.”

After Heard went to the bench, OSU got 19 points from six players over the rest of the second quarter.

Triple trouble

The OSU offense got a boost from the 3-pointer, which has been a strong point for this offense much of the season.

Yet it was a couple of crucial old-fashioned three-point plays midway through the fourth quarter that kept the Cowgirls in control.

First, Gusters took a pass from Asi for a layup while drawing a foul. Then after Texas Tech missed a 3-pointer on the following possession, OSU’s Quincy Noble got the rebound, threw an outlet pass and got the ball back on the fastbreak.

She was fouled as she made her layup and added the free throw that stretched the Cowgirl lead to 61-44 with under six minutes to play.

As for the deep ball, OSU hit six of its first 14 and nine of 22 in all.

Garzon, Langerman, Heard and Asi each made at least two 3-pointers. Garzon finished with 11 points and Noble had 10.

The Cowgirls will take their three-game winning streak onto the road to face Kansas, which got its first Big 12 win of the season when it knocked off Baylor 87-66 Wednesday night. OSU visits the Jayhawks for a 6:30 p.m. game Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State women's basketball tops Texas Tech for 3rd straight win