STILLWATER — Oklahoma State had two chances to send a powerful message on Wednesday.
The Cowgirls could have announced themselves as true contenders for the conference when they took a 19-point lead with 1:34 left to play in the third quarter.
That lead shrank to five by the time Jadyn Wooten fouled out with 4:23 left to play, leaving OSU with two other key Cowgirls staring down four fouls. Still, if Oklahoma State could survive that, then at least they would prove to themselves and the rest of the Big 12 that they can get it done without requiring the type of heroic performances that saw the team lean so heavily on Stailee Heard last season.
Instead, Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt left Gallagher-Iba Arena for the last time in 2025 feeling sick.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of losses, none quite like this, I would say,” Hoyt said. “Where I just feel like we really gave the game away. … We weren’t tough when it mattered. … We had stupid fouls away from the basket, and we put ourselves in a tough spot.”
Those fouls proved to be the Cowgirls’ undoing.
Wooten looked nearly unstoppable at times, especially offensively. She finished with a team-high 16 points despite missing five minutes in the third quarter and the last half of the final period due to fouls.
“Killed us and I say that because I think Jadyn is one of the best facilitators in the country,” Hoyt said when asked to describe how the sophomore’s absence impacted the game. “We are different with her on the floor, our pace is different. She’s been with me for some time. She knows what we do, she knows what we want, she knows what I’m looking for, and I didn’t have that.”
Baylor coach Nicki Collen described Wooten as maybe “the best midrange shooter in college basketball.”
“When you look at why did we win, we took away the 3, and they didn’t have a lot of assists,” Collen said. “I mean, it’s that simple, they are a team that thrives off of the ball spraying around, and when they’re forced to play late in the shot clock and put their head down. (Then) Jadyn Wooten can go get her own, like she’s elite at so I thought she got the reverse a couple times. You know, she got to her pullup. … But that’s what makes her hard to guard. Like she does a good job of leaning, creating space, and goes so quickly into her pullup that it’s hard to get to and you got to have length on her, really, to even contest it. Because when we had littles on her, we couldn’t, we couldn’t even get a contest on her.”
The other two Cowgirls who found themselves with four fouls headed into the final quarter were Micah Gray, who finished with 14 points and three of OSU’s five 3-pointers in the loss, and Amari Whiting, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
“Going into that fourth quarter, I felt very uneasy knowing that what got us the lead was our aggression,” Hoyt said. “And we couldn’t be as aggressive as we wanted to be. You know, when you’re trying to play, not to foul like you’re not as aggressive defensively, and then that made us passive on offense.”
Hoyt said she could point out at least one “boneheaded foul” by each person today, though she didn’t specify if she was referring to just that trio or others as well.
Regardless, it’s safe to say the foul trouble couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Cowgirls who were missing the team’s No. 3 scorer, Lena Girardi, who spent the game sitting courtside with a sling.
“She’s day to day right now,” Hoyt said. “It’s a shoulder. Kind of just a freak thing. There was no contact or anything, so we’re still trying to figure it out, but she’s really motivated to get back, and just loves the game more than probably anyone I know. So I’m confident that she’s going to do everything she can to get back in rehab, but we’re still just at a day to day kind of observation right now.”
The loss might mute the Cowgirls’ New Year’s Eve plans, but it doesn’t have to derail their hopes of chasing a Big 12 title and a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. In fact, Oklahoma State can more than make up for the missed opportunity in the next week.
Houston (6-7, 0-2 Big 12) visits GIA on Saturday at 3 p.m. which should provide a tuneup before Oklahoma State hits the road to face No. 8 TCU (13-0, 1-0 Big 12) on Wednesday.
“I just feel like we kind of relaxed,” Gray said. “We got too comfortable. We got the lead, and we just didn’t want to be as aggressive, and then also the foul trouble as well, and then just coming off this loss, we definitely have to focus on just the details and just being connected. I just feel like when the games get hard, like they did today, like we don’t have really that much connectivity on the floor, so we just have to find that.”
Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.
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