Oklahoma State cruises to 84-71 victory over Texas in Stillwater

With 9:05 remaining before intermission, Shaka Smart’s Texas Longhorns owned a 23-15 lead over the Oklahoma State Cowboys behind fluid offense and crisp defense. Then, somewhere inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, a former diehard Kevin Durant fan decided on a quick bathroom break and returned to see his beloved Cowboys leading 35-25 behind a 20-2 run during a six-minute span.

It was a run the ‘Horns were never able to fully recover from.

Texas did close the half on a 8-3 run of its own with the Pokes’ lone bucket being a Jeffrey Carroll prayer just before the shot clock expired, but after trailing 38-33 at the half, Oklahoma State again kicked off the action with a 13-2 run to essentially bury the Longhorns early in the second half.

Even considering a late offensive surge from Texas, Oklahoma State outscored Texas 69-48 following the ‘Horns noted early 23-15 lead in a game that saw much go right for the Cowboys and little go right for the boys in burnt orange.

The Cowboys opened the second half by connecting on 4-5 attempts from deep en route to 10-19 total threes on the night, while Texas shot a miserable 17.4 percent from downtown (4-23). The free throw line wasn’t friendly to Texas, either; namely, Jarrett Allen, who missed all seven of his attempts. Aside from standing at the line, Allen was phenomenal offensively, scoring 18 points on 9-13 shooting and snagging 10 rebounds. Andrew Jones and Kerwin Roach Jr. joined Allen in double figures with 16 and 13, respectively, but the remaining Longhorns scored a collective 24 points, which isn’t enough to keep up with an explosive Oklahoma State team.

With the exception of Mitchell Solomon (six points), the entire Oklahoma State starting lineup scored in double figures, with Phil Forte III and Carroll leading the way with 18 a piece behind seven three-points on just nine attempts.

There’s not much else to say about this one and expect Smart to pass on taking a copy of the game film back to Austin. Per usual, Texas suffered through offensive droughts while the Cowboys exploded with flurries of threes, which, occurring consecutively, left the Longhorns playing catch up for two-thirds of the game.

The ‘Horns are now 9-15 (4-8) on the season and remain winless on the road, while also failing to win back-to-back games since the 3-0 start. Next up, Texas will travel to Norman for a Tuesday evening meeting with the Oklahoma Sooners in pursuit of a season sweep over another Big 12 bottom-feeder. .