Cowboys fall short in nail-biter to Kansas State

Saturday, January 20

Manhattan, Kan.

6:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

8-10,0-5Big 12

Kansas State

14-4,4-1Big 12

Oklahoma St.

Kansas St.

January 20, 2024 | Cowboy Basketball

Box Score Postgame Notes Game Book (PDF)

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Oklahoma State's Eric Dailey Jr. matched his career-high with 15 points, but Kansas State erased a 10-point deficit over the final 10 minutes to win 70-66 on Saturday evening at Bramlage Coliseum.

The Cowboys (8-10, 0-5) fell to 0-6 in games decided by five points in either direction. K-State (14-4, 4-1) improved to 5-1.

Dailey was 6-of-10 from the field and knocked own all three free throw attempts.

John-Michael Wright scored 11 points on 3-of-7 three-point shooting and Javon Small stuffed the box score with 11 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Arthur Kaluma had 23 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for his college career and Cam Carter scored 12 of his 15 in the second half, including an alley-oop layup with 24 seconds left that put K-State in front for good.

K-State shot 52.1% to OSU's 41.5% and avoid what would have been just its third home loss in the last two seasons.

The Cowboys kept pace by winning the rebounding battle, 31-25. They limited the Wildcats to just three offensive boards.

Small's three-pointer gave OSU its largest lead of the night, 54-44, near the midway point of the second half, but the hosts finished the game on a 26-12 push.

Will McNair answered with a layup and Tylor Perry hit a triple then converted a three-point play to trim the deficit to four with 8:39 to play.

Making his first career start, OSU freshman Connor Dow sank a three to make it 59-52, but the Wildcats scored nine of the next 10 points. Carter banked in a trey to cap the spurt and give Kansas State a 61-60 lead — its first since 20-19 — with 3:31 to play.

OSU tied the game three times down the stretch, the last at 66 on Small's layup with less than a minute to go.

The Cowboys nearly came up with a defensive stop, knocking the ball out of bounds under the K-State basket with just 1.2 seconds left on the shot clock and 25 on the game clock.

Instead, Perry lobbed an inbound pass to Carter for an alley-oop lay-in and a 68-66 lead.

OSU forced 17 K-State turnovers on a season-high 13 steals but committed 17 turnovers of its own.

The last, and most-costly, came with 11 seconds to go when the ball squirted out of bounds in front of the Cowboy bench.

The Wildcats added two free throws for the final margin.

OSU is back home Tuesday night to face No. 19 TCU at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Tipoff is 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.