Oklahoma State Beats Tulsa At Paycom Center, 72-57

Javon Small scored 18 points and Oklahoma State rode a fast start to a 72-57 neutral-court win over Tulsa in the Battleground 2K23 at the Paycom Center.

The Cowboys (4-5) won despite totaling more turnovers (28) than baskets (23). They committed just one in the first eight minutes of the game while building leads of 17-3 and 21-5 but had 13 in the final 11 minutes of the first half and 14 more after halftime.

PJ Haggerty and Tyshawn Archie scored 13 points each and combined for nine of Tulsa's 19 steals – the most ever by an OSU opponent. The previous mark was 18, set in 2002 by UMKC and matched in 2021 by Texas.

The Cowboys atoned with a dominant defensive effort of their own, forcing 20 Tulsa turnovers while finishing +18 on the boards (41-23). They held the Golden Hurricane to 37% from the field, including 3-of-20 from deep, and just four assists.

OSU shot 48.9% and 8-of-20 from three.

Small was 10-of-13 from the free throw line, ending a string of 28 consecutive makes going back to Nov. 17. It was the longest Cowboy streak since Phil Forte in January, 2015 and tied for the ninth-longest in school history.

Quion Williams added a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting along with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. He converted a three-point play with 5:32 left in the opening half to give OSU its largest lead of the night (19) at 30-11.

Tulsa – which started the game 4-of-19 from the field -- hit 5-of-7 shots and scored 15 of the final 20 points before the intermission to trim the deficit to single-digits, 35-26.

OSU opened the second half with another 15-6 spurt to rebuild its lead to 50-32 near the 13:00-mark.

Isaiah Miranda, the sixth OSU freshman to debut this season, scored his first collegiate points on a sequence that included a steal and a ferocious putback dunk that made it 62-49 with 6:04 to play.

The Cowboys improved to 108-26 all-time in Oklahoma City, including 15-5 at Paycom Center, home of the NBA's Thunder. This was their first visit since early in the 2013-14 season.

OSU is now 76-39 against Tulsa (3-1 under Mike Boynton Jr.).

The Cowboys have the week off before opening up a five-game homestand against Oral Roberts on Sunday, Dec. 17.