Parsa Fallah appears to suffer severe injury in OSU's overtime win against WVU
Fallah’s injury looms large after Cowboys’ victory against Mountaineers
In the final seconds of an overtime win, peril struck Oklahoma State basketball.
OSU beat West Virginia 91-84 in overtime on Tuesday at Gallagher-Iba Arena, snapping a five-game losing streak. But the Cowboys endured a gut-wrenching injury.
With OSU leading by 5 late, center Parsa Fallah collected a pass down court and rushed toward the basket in transition and slammed a one-handed dunk. But as he landed on the ground, his leg buckled inward as his knee gave out. Shortly after, Fallah dropped to the court and grasped his leg. He let out cries of deep agony, which echoed throughout GIA as dead silence struck the venue.
“It was an exclamation dunk,” OSU coach Steve Lutz said. “But not necessarily a landing.”
With only 5.5 seconds remaining, Cowboys (17-11, 5-10 Big 12) lost a star player and key facilitator within the offense. Moments later, athletic trainers helped him off the floor and into a wheelchair as he was rolled into the team’s locker room for further evaluation.
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Fallah had a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds as OSU downed the Mountaineers. But now, with the Cowboys on the outside looking in for attaining an NCAA Tournament berth, the team’s outlook with three games remaining until postseason play remains rather grim.
“Certainly thinking about Parsa,” West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said postgame. “We recruited him a little bit (out of the transfer portal), and got to know him, and his fiance at the time.
"He really has had an All-Big 12 type of performance. So, certainly thinking about him and praying for him. You hate to see that.”
Hodge took time to address the game and its outcome, before continuing on the matter.
“It's heartbreaking, and I even saw the look on our guys' faces,” he said. “And at that point in time, you saw the genuine concern in particular from some of our seniors knowing how fragile this thing really is. Yeah — it's just gut-wrenching.”
Shortly after, Fallah entered the team meeting room.
With the aid of crutches, he made his way toward the podium, albeit with a noticeable limp. He acknowledged how it wasn’t mandatory for him to address reporters moments after his injury. Still, he chose to.
Out respect for his teammates. For OSU. And for Lutz, whom he said “changed (his) life.”
“First of all, I'm really, really grateful for this year that I had here," Fallah said. "Oklahoma State was the best year that I had in my college career. And the fans — I just hope they know how much I care really about them. It was a great experience, so I wanted to say thank you to everyone. And to all the fans out there."
Lutz said further tests would be conducted in the future to determine his availability. However, no clear update was provided regarding Fallah’s status.
The Cowboys face Cincinnati on the road on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“Obviously, we’ll see how it works out with Parsa,” Lutz said… “I’m sure that Parsa is an unbelievable human being. He’s an unbelievable person, he’s an unbelievable teammate and good things happen to good people. So, I’ve got to believe that something good is going to come out of this (for) this young man.”
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