The Cowboys and Wildcats on Tuesday will meet for the first time since the 2005 Sweet 16.

Oklahoma State hosts Big 12 newcomer Arizona on Tuesday night. The Cowboys are coming off a big Saturday win against Colorado, while Arizona enters off a Saturday stumble in Lubbock that interrupted a seven-game winning streak. Here are the basics for the matchup.

Viewing Info

Time: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Watch: ESPNU

Team Stats

Last Game Starters

Series History (Arizona Leads 3-0)

Thanks for stopping by – here’s your daily dose of Oklahoma State sports news.

Scores

Wrestling: Cowboys 30, West Virginia 12

OSU Bullets

• 30 years after the Cowboys hired Bob Simmons (great context on that hire in this piece), Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman will coach for a national title tonight (TulsaWorld)

• Pokes hung 30 on West Virginia at Gallagher-Iba yesterday and crowds continue to gather to watch David Taylor’s squad (PFB) The only real “dog in the hunt” for the Cowboys in tonight’s title game is Jim Knowles (CBS Sports)

• OSU made the final seven for the top wrestling prospect in the country over the weekend (X)

• Who can be OSU’s No. 1 wide receiver? (TulsaWorld)

• ICYMI – the Cowboys took down Colorado on Saturday – five thoughts from the win here (PFB)

Non-OSU Bullets

• The secret to Denmark’s work-life balance • Praying with a plan (faith-based)

STILLWATER — The Cowboys were back in black on Sunday.

The Oklahoma State wrestling team beat West Virginia 30-12 in a dual that pushed the Pokes to 9-0 on the season. There were 8,257 in attendance — a GIA record for the school year — and OSU held a blackout, which made for some fun visuals. PFB photographer Devin Wilber (on his birthday) was mat-side Sunday. Here are 10 of his best shots. You can see his full gallery here.

Want more from Sunday’s dual? You can read about the dual, see the results and hear from David Taylor here.

PHOTOS

STILLWATER — The Cowboys’ 30-point streak needed a hero, and luckily the Pokes have one at heavyweight.

Wyatt Hendrickson trotted to the mat with “Copperhead Road” ringing throughout Gallagher-Iba Arena. He pinned his opponent in less than a minute, did a backflip and secured Oklahoma State’s 30-12 win against West Virginia.

The Cowboys are 9-0 this season and have scored at least 30 points in all of those wins. The last time OSU started a season with at least nine 30-point performances was the 1987-88 season — the season John Smith won his second NCAA title as a wrestler. The Cowboys started with 10 in a row that season, so OSU has the opportunity to match that against a tough Northern Iowa team on Friday.

“A lot of what we just talked about in the locker room was being appreciative of these opportunities that we have,” OSU coach David Taylor said. “Every day I wake up and grateful to be coaching this program. And every day these guys come in the room, and they just gotta appreciate the opportunity to go out and compete in Gallagher, and pushing attendance, and having a product that people are excited to go and watch. …

“We want to represent a product and a style, the way wrestling should be done in its purest way. You got seven minutes to score. You score the entire time. If you’re not turning them, you’re cutting them and your tie ups and you’re getting another takedown. That’s what we do every day, and our guys are representing that when we go out there. And it’s leading to more team points, which is awesome.”

It wasn’t the best of days for the start of OSU’s lineup. The Mountaineers held a 12-11 lead through six matches, but the Pokes proved that in order to take them out in a dual, you’re going to need a massive lead going into those final four weights.

Dean Hamiti Jr. got the ball rolling with a 19-3 technical fall victory against Brody Conley at 174 pounds. Hamiti is super smooth. When the match first started, he momentarily grabbed Conley’s ankle without the two touching anywhere else. It didn’t end in a takedown, but drew a big “Ooooo” from the 8,257 in attendance. Hamiti scored a quintet of takedowns in the win.

Dustin Plott kept the pace, beating Dennis Robin with a 20-4 technical fall in just two periods. That second period alone saw Plott score four takedowns. Combined, Hamiti and Plott recorded 11 takedowns. The Mountaineers scored six takedowns the entire afternoon.

At 197, Luke Surber wrestled a tightly contested match against Ian Bush. Surber was down 3-2 entering the third, a period where he took Bush down and rode him. A riding-time point in the waning seconds earned Surber the victory. So, after trailing 12-11, the Pokes were up 24-12 leading into Hendrickson’s pin.

“In terms of the dual, it was a scrap,” Taylor said. “We found ourselves in some tough matches tonight. It was good for our team to experience that. We’ve got some tough upcoming matches. This is a tough sport. There are no easy days, no off days. I think if you’re gonna wrestle for a program like Oklahoma State, you’re gonna get the best of everybody. You’re gonna get the best of everybody. West Virginia, they were prepared tonight, and they scraped really hard.”

From a rankings standpoint, the match of the night was at 165 pounds, featuring No. 6 Cameron Amine vs. No. 3 Peyton Hall. The two met in the finals of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational where Hall got the better of Amine. That happened again Sunday, which the Mountaineer beating the Cowboy 5-1.

To start the dual, Troy Spratley suffered his second consecutive loss when Jett Strickenberger pinned him in the first period. The 125-pound weight class is one that’s tough to be consistent in, but Spratley had climbed up to No. 2 in the national standings before losing to NC State’s Vince Robinson last week. Spratley was at No. 4 entering this match. Despite the back-to-back Ls, Spratley is still 12-3 on the season.

Cael Hughes got the call at 133 pounds, as his battle with Reece Witcraft goes on. Hughes pinned No. 7 Kai Orine in the NC State dual, but he found himself in a scrap with Tommy Maddox, who entered Sunday’s dual at just 1-5 this season. The match went into sudden victory after Maddox scored on a third-period takedown. Hughes looked tired, but he came through in the clutch, scoring a takedown in sudden victory to get the Cowboys on the board.

That led into an eventful first period for Tagen Jamison at 141 pounds. Jamison’s headgear broke early in the match. He went to the corner and tried a few different pairs on before reemerging while someone ran to the locker room to get his backup. He ended up wearing three different pairs of headgear in the first period alone. His opponent, Jordan Titus, was also getting a little handsy. Jamison took a shot to the head before the official blew the whistle to put a stop to things just for Titus to give Jamison a two-hand shove to the chest. That all happened in the first period.

Jamison kept his composure, though, and ended up beating Titus with a 14-4 major decision.

“I’m pretty composed as a person, so it’s not hard,” Jamison said. “But everybody has something in them that they want to shove right back, but you just gotta stay smart and control the match. I feel like that’s what I did.”

Results

Post-Dual News Conference

The Cowboys took care of business against the Buffaloes in the annual Remember the Ten game on Saturday. Pistols Firing photographer Devin Wilber was courtside to take in all of action on the hardwood as well as the memorial for those fallen Cowboys.

Here are some of his best shots from Saturday. You can check out the entire album here.

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RECAP
BOX SCORE
PHOTOS

STILLWATER — It was a big day for the Oklahoma State community, and the Cowboys honored it with a big win.

Oklahoma State beat Colorado 83-73 in the annual Remember the Ten game. The win pushes OSU to 10-7 on the year and 2-4 in Big 12 play. Here are five thoughts from it.

1. A Much Better Start

Saturday was just the second time in conference play this season the Cowboys didn’t go into the locker room down double digits. In fact, they went in up double digits.

OSU had a 43-33 lead at the break while shooting 43% from the field. Coming into the day, the Cowboys were outscored 181-132 in five Big 12 first halves while shooting just 30% from the field. Those numbers include the Kansas State game, where OSU led 43-24 at the half. Without that, it was ugly.

It wasn’t that the Cowboys hit the floor aflame. They had a 1-for-5 start from the field before making four of their next five.

OSU did, though, force the Buffaloes into 10 turnovers in the first and held CU to just 1-for-9 from 3. The Cowboys turned those 10 turnovers into eight points and had seven fastbreak points in the half.

“Our defense was a little bit better,” Lutz said. “I thought that we were able to get some easy baskets off of turnovers. And then I thought that we shared the ball. At halftime, if I’m not mistaken, we had six assists on nine made baskets, which is a very, very high percentage. As I’ve talked about in the press conference last week, we’ve been a little bit too selfish. I thought the guys played more as a team and shared the ball offensively. But it all started with our defense. We were able to turn them over and get some easy ones.”

2. Eating Glass

The Pokes scoring 31 points from the foul line certainly helped their effort Saturday, but this game was won on the glass.

Oklahoma State outrebounded Colorado 36-23, marking the first time the Buffaloes have been outrebounded since a Jan. 4 meeting with Arizona State. Sometimes rebounding numbers can feel inflated because the losing team misses so many shots, but OSU was 23-for-50 from the field Saturday. Colorado was 23-for-49. It was just a bullying performance for the Pokes.

With that advantage, OSU outscored the Buffaloes 22-7 in second-chance points. That’s a winning stat.

3. Rarely a Dull Moment with Chi Chi Avery

There was a sequence late in Saturday’s game where Chi Chi Avery pump faked his man into the air (his pump fake almost always works) before driving baseline and throwing down a two-handed slam.

LOOK MA TWO HANDS https://t.co/Bc7b2eJhgW pic.twitter.com/tvLdZotbuA

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

Those two points accounted for Avery’s 14th and 15th of the night — tying a game-high. The issue was on the other end of the floor, he gave up a jump shot. A timeout was called, and Lutz let Avery know he wasn’t thrilled with the defensive effort.

“Chi Chi’s got as high a ceiling as he wants to have,” Lutz said. “He has NBA potential, but it’s just a matter of can he remain disciplined, can he do the right things, can he practice hard every day? His highs and his lows are just phenomenal. You have that great dunk, and then you go down and you let the guy shoot from the corner and you stand in the lane? That’s not acceptable. We had talked in the timeout about not taking our foot off the gas and playing the right way. It’s just a matter of how good Chi Chi wants to be.”

Avery’s highs are phenomenal. He’s 6-foot-8 but moves fluidly and is the Cowboys’ most pertinent 3-point threat. Take a possession in the first half, for example. Colorado threw a zone at the Pokes. The offensive possession somewhat broke down, but Avery coolly stepped into a 3 from the logo — and hit it.

WAY out there https://t.co/VmCENIoceF pic.twitter.com/L4atn7Y0ZR

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

A consistent Chi Chi is one heck of a basketball player — one of the more talented players OSU has had in recent seasons. Here’s to hoping everyone gets to see more good Chi Chi.

4 Suemnick, Dow Step Up

West Virginia transfer Patrick Suemnick had his best game as a Cowboy on Saturday. He did the majority of his work in the first half, being a big reason for OSU’s solid opening 20 minutes.

He had 10 points and four rebounds — all of which came in the first half. Three of his rebounds were on the offensive end, and those offensive boards led to six OSU second-chance points.

There was a fun stretch in the first half where Arturo Dean hit a rolling Suemnick for a bucket before Dean stole the ensuing inbound pass. Not long later, Suemnick scored again. Those two both brought some juice.

“This one just meant a little bit more to me,” Suemnick said. “I lost my grandfather last week, and then his funeral was yesterday. My grandma texted me. She’s like, ‘He would want you to stay there and handle business for the game, but just make sure you play for him today.’ It just had a little extra meaning for me.”

Then Connor Dow raised a few eyebrows this past weekend when he subbed in against BYU and scored five quick points.

At his midweek availability, Lutz said he was going to find a way to get Dow some more minutes, and he did. Dow played a dozen on Saturday and might’ve played more if he didn’t pick up a pair of first-half fouls. Dow hit both of his 3-point attempts, finishing with six points and a pair of rebounds.

Silky smooth jumper from @connordow_3 pic.twitter.com/JgmFwpfHnh

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

Three-point shooting was expected to be a big part of Dow’s game. He was only a freshman last season, but him going 16-for-57 (28%) from deep certainly wasn’t ideal. Well, now he’s hit his past three attempts and looks a lot more confident when he steps into those. And if the ball is on the floor around him, Dow is soon to follow with a dive to the white maple. For a team that has struggled from 3 this season, Dow could turn into a valuable piece.

5. Remember the Ten

Lutz is new to Stillwater, but he did not shy away from the fact that winning on this day means more to the OSU family.

It was the annual Remember the Ten game, where OSU honors the lives of Kendall Durfey, Bjorn Fahlstrom, Nate Fleming, Will Hancock, Daniel Lawson, Brian Luinstra, Denver Mills, Pay Noyes, Bill Teegins and Jared Weiberg — 10 people who lost their lives when a plane crashed on Jan. 27, 2001 as the group was headed back from a basketball game against Colorado.

Lutz spoke eloquently earlier in the week about the importance of the game and how he has studied up on the event. Here’s how he opened his postgame news conference.

“Obviously we’re excited to get a victory, but this day is much more about the families of the 10 members that we lost in 2001,” Lutz said. “Obviously we were playing for something bigger than this game against Colorado, and I thought that our fans came out and supported it and helped us get to a victory. That just goes to show how phenomenal the Oklahoma State family is in terms of taking care of one another and always being loyal and true to one another. We’ll never forget them, and we’ll always have their backs. It was a great day in terms of that.”

Postgame News Conference

The Cowboys got right at home after a rough two-game road trip.

Oklahoma State defeated Colorado 83-73 and earned that elusive second Big 12 win.

The Cowboys were able build a 10-point half time lead thanks to second-chance points and taking advantage from the stripe. Then they were able to ride a couple big second-half performances from Bryce Thompson and Abou Ousmane to the win.

OSU was 21-for-26 from the charity stripe in the first half alone, which would have been their most made and attempted in conference play. They also held an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points at the break.

While the Cowboys made their hay from the free-throw line, OSU had multiple made-field goal droughts of around three minutes in the first half and didn’t make their first field goal in the second until nearly four minutes in. But that layup by Thompson started a streak of five made buckets in six attempts for the Pokes to shake off any locker room rust.

A 6-0 run put the Cowboys up 64-50 with nine minutes to go. Then another 7-0 run — thanks to Thompson and Ousmane — ballooned the lead to 18 by the five-minute mark. The Buffs were able to whittle the lead down to 11 by the two-minute mark, but the Pokes were able to hold on from there.

OSU finished shooting 46% from the field and 35% from 3, but outscored Colorado by nine at the charity stripe. The Cowboys were 31-for-42 on free throws, a season high in FTs attempted and tying their season best for FTs made. Colorado shot 47% but just 23% from 3 and went 22-for-25 on free ones.

The Cowboys beat up the Buffs on the boards, out-rebounding Colorado 36-23 and owning the offensive glass 13-3 which led to a 22-7 advantage in second-chance points.

Oklahoma State has faced a dearth of offensive consistency in Big 12 play, but four different Cowboys scored in double digits Saturday.

BT SLAM AND GIA ERUPTS pic.twitter.com/fyaL1NxQKe

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

In his 100th game as a Cowboy, Thompson tied to lead all scorers with 15 on 1o field goal attempts. He was 7-for-10 from the line.

Chi Chi from WAY downtown @Ballout_chii pic.twitter.com/O3n6M1SS2y

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

Chi Chi Avery also scored 15 on 10 shots to go along with a game-high seven rebounds. Ousmane added 14 on just eight shots to go with five rebounds.

LOOK MA TWO HANDS https://t.co/Bc7b2eJhgW pic.twitter.com/tvLdZotbuA

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

Pat Suemnick came in averaging 2.5 points (10th-best on the roster) and had only made more than two field goals once this year. He scored 10 points and grabbed four boards on 3-of-4 shooting (all in the first half) and was one short of his season high.

Connor Dow logged a season-high 12 minutes and scored a season-high six points on two shots. As his minutes increase, so does Dow’s positive impact on the game. Following his season-high five-point performance against BYU, Dow entered the fray about six minutes into the first half and quickly knocked down his first 3 but had to hit the bench after he picked up two quick fouls in three minutes. He returned early in the second and made another 3.

Silky smooth jumper from @connordow_3 pic.twitter.com/JgmFwpfHnh

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2025

Next up, the Cowboys host Arizona on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The Wildcats, at 5-1 in Big 12 play, will be looking for their own bounce-back after dropping their first conference loss at Texas Tech on Saturday.

The Cowboys will be back in black on Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Oklahoma State hosts West Virginia, where the Cowboys will wear black singlets and have asked the crowd to also wear black. The Pokes look to remain unbeaten and extend their start of scoring at least 30 team points in every dual. Here’s a preview for Sunday.

Viewing Info

When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Watch: ESPN+ (J. Carl Guymon and Hardell Moore)

Projected Lineups

Series History (OSU Leads 17-0)

David Taylor Previews West Virginia