Oklahoma State vs. West Virginia women's basketball: 3 takeaways from Cowgirls' upset win

STILLWATER — In a timeout with less than a minute left in the first half, Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt issued a challenge to her team.

The Cowgirls led No. 25 West Virginia by four points.

“We’re either going into the locker room up four or more,” Hoyt said.

Her team made a defensive statement, and Anna Gret Asi provided the exclamation point with a 3-point heave from beyond the midcourt logo at the halftime buzzer.

From there, West Virginia (22-6, 11-6 Big 12) never got back within four points again as the Cowgirls (14-14, 7-10) picked up one of their most meaningful wins of the season, 68-61, Tuesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

While the long bomb was her most exciting play of the night, Asi commanded the game, finishing with 22 points and six assists. She had three of OSU’s four made 3-pointers.

“Anna Gret was fabulous tonight,” Hoyt said. “I mean, you talk about putting a team on your back. She was special.”

In a season littered with injuries and adversity, upsetting a ranked team on Senior Night couldn’t have been a sweeter sendoff — and not just for the seniors.

“This night was for the seniors,” Asi said. “Just really, really glad that we got the win for them, for each other, for our fanbase.

“After the Houston loss, the numbers in the stands went down — we have noticed it’s not as filled anymore, but the ones we have, the true fans, it was really nice to have this good game for them as well.”

The Cowgirls have one regular season game left, at Baylor on Sunday, then the Big 12 Tournament, but Tuesday will live on as a remarkably fulfilling win.

“We’ve had some highs this season, and we’ve had some really low lows, and Saturday was our lowest point,” Hoyt said, referencing the 91-56 loss at OU. “For the people who stick with you when things aren’t going well — I’ve never had a season like this with so many injuries, with so much adversity.

“It’s by far been the hardest year of my coaching career, and you remember the people who show up for you when things aren’t going well. There’s just really great people here in Stillwater and I can’t acknowledge them enough.”

Here are three takeaways from the OSU win:

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Senior salute

OSU honored a trio of senior players prior to the game: guard Quincy Noble, forward Lior Garzon and forward Emilee Ebert.

While Ebert was on crutches as a result of her recent knee surgery from a season-ending injury, Garzon and Noble were in their regular starting spots, playing the vast majority of the game.

Noble turned in an effort typical of her lone season in Stillwater. She finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, playing all 40 minutes.

And Garzon, who has an additional year of eligibility remaining should she choose to use it, wasn’t hitting from outside like usual, but still contributed three rebounds and three assists to go with her two points.

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Asi from way downtown

OSU was 0 for 4 from 3-point range in the first half when Asi took an inbounds pass, needing to go the length of the court with five seconds left in the second quarter.

She tried to dribble free against West Virginia’s full-court zone press, but had nowhere to go. So she launched a shot from between the OSU midcourt logo and the top of the key on the opposite end of the floor.

Asi stood and watched as the ball swished through, turning toward her bench with a humble smile before her teammates swarmed her.

“I was like, ‘We just need to get a shot off,’” Asi said. “I saw that nobody was open, so I was just like, throw it that direction. And it went in.

“Really glad it went in, because it gave us really good momentum at the end of the first half.”

The shot put OSU up 35-26 and West Virginia never got closer than seven points in the second half, until a basket with 18 seconds to go pulled the Mountaineers within five.

But OSU senior Rylee Langerman hit a pair of free throws to seal it shortly after.

“It was awesome to see them hang on for four quarters, be able to put it together,” Hoyt said of her team. “I thought that we had really great responses. When West Virginia would make a push, we always responded.”

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Surviving the press

West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg used his team's effective full-court press like he always does, but he hoped it might have an additional impact on the game.

With OSU down to a seven-player rotation, Kellogg thought the constant pressure might wear the Cowgirls down.

You could say Hoyt had the same concern.

“That’s an understatement,” Hoyt said with a laugh. “It wasn’t about being able to handle the press as much as just our legs with a quick turnaround (after playing Saturday). I thought they were fantastic at handling it, and not just handling it but scoring against it. Making them pay.”

The Cowgirls had 19 turnovers, but even when they made mistakes against the press, they didn’t regularly get beat by it. West Virginia had just 12 points off turnovers, while OSU had 20 points off 15 WVU turnovers.

And the Cowgirls got good minutes from the bench. In addition to her late free throws, Langerman played strong defense as usual. And 6-foot-3 redshirt freshman Praise Egharevba had one of her best games of the season with six points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.

“Praise was awesome,” Hoyt said. “Everyone probably is playing through something right now … but Praise has been going through it. She couldn’t practice. She could barely even do shootaround today.

“For her to just say, ‘No, Coach, I’m gonna show up, I’m gonna give it what I can,’ just says a lot about her character.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State Cowgirls upset West Virginia women's basketball