Cowgirls overcome hangover game, beat Tulsa 90-58

Jacie Hoyt said she didn’t say much after the first quarter. 

Despite her team holding only a 4-point lead over Tulsa in an eventual 90-58 win for Oklahoma State on Monday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, her words remained short and concise, she said. No noteworthy pep talk from. No substantial intermission adjustments. Nothing.

Sloppiness, 12 combined turnovers — five from the Cowgirls — and poor shooting made overall play look slapdash up to that point. And while Hoyt said she figured it would initially after a 22-point loss to Bedlam rival Oklahoma on Saturday in Oklahoma City, the product on display was far from stellar. 

So, Hoyt, Oklahoma State’s fourth-year coach, let reality do the talking. She kept her message simple — be the aggressor. 

“It was great to play so quickly after our last game, but it was also kind of hard with a one-day prep,” Hoyt said. “...I think it was just really clear what we felt like we needed to do tonight, and that was to be the aggressor.”

From the second quarter on, Hoyt’s team did just that. Once the mental reset marinated, shots started falling and the group emulated that of which all had witnessed throughout nonconference play prior to Saturday’s loss. 

The Cowgirls (11-2) outscored Tulsa 73-45 over the final three quarters, doing so from a 24-6 (!) clip in the second. OSU’s playmakers got going, BYU transfer Amari Whiting and Micah Gray finished with 18 and 20, respectively, while Lena Girardi (14) and Jadyn Wooten (13) also finished with double figures in the scoring column. 

Additionally, the Cowgirls forced 31 Golden Hurricane (6-4) turnovers, including 11 in the second quarter. Hoyt credited a lot of that defensive efficiency to Whiting, which she said often gets overlooked on the stat sheet.

“I don’t know that her defense is talked about enough,” Hoyt said. “For example, Haleigh Timmer had five steals tonight, but I think a lot of that is because of (Whiting’s) ball pressure. So, she’s not always rewarded with the steal or the stat, but when Amari is picking up and guarding that guy, we’re really good.”

And Whiting echoed her coach's words.

"I feel like that's just always been my game," she said. "I just start defensively and that kind of flows my offense. And it just flows our game. I feel like we are really good at transition and running, and that comes with getting stops."

A message from Visit Stillwater

The temperatures are dropping, but the holiday spirit is heating up in Stillwater! Find special gifts and holiday happenings all throughout America’s Friendliest College Town.

Whiting finished with a plus-minus of 27, the second-best rating behind only Gray. As Hoyt said, when OSU’s best players are efficient, the Cowgirls have shown flashes of a championship contender. Monday’s outing backed that once again. 

“Like coach Hoyt said, we just wanted to get back to (our) caliber of basketball,” Whiting said. “I think a lot of us were just really disappointed with ourselves for (how we played) against that OU team. “We just really wanted to make a statement of, ‘OK, like here’s how we get back to it. To (our caliber of basketball).’”

Statement made. Mission accomplished. 

Now, Big 12 play awaits.

The Cowgirls open at Cincinnati December 21, before hosting No. 15 Baylor on New Year’s Eve. One week later, they’ll travel to Fort Worth to face No. 9 TCU at Schollmaier Arena. 

Hoyt’s team garnered substantial preseason hype for its returning talent, complemented by a heralded transfer portal class, which included Whiting from BYU, Timmer from South Dakota State, Achol Akot from UCF, Tyla Heard — the sister of returning starter Stailee Heard — from Oral Roberts, among others. A No. 22 AP preseason ranking ensued, along with a fourth-place selection in the Big 12 women’s preseason media poll.

Losses like Saturday’s happen. They don’t always define a team’s season, but they can deflate it.

But if anything, Monday was a sign that won’t be the case. Because, in Hoyt’s words, this OSU team has “gamers.” A lot of them. 

“I thought Saturday (against Oklahoma) at times we were not even recognizable a lot of times because we weren’t the aggressor,” Hoyt said. “And then there’s a difference between losing and losing in a way where you know you weren’t who you want to be. And so, tonight, it was just really about getting back to being the aggressor. We certainly did that.”

📺 Watch Game Highlights