Oklahoma State withstood an early onslaught from Green Bay, but kept its composure thanks to a 22-point game by Bryce Thompson and prevailed 89-76 Monday night in Stillwater, Okla.
In the season opener for both teams, the Cowboys had an even scoring night with four players scoring in double figures, with Abou Ousmane scoring 16 points with eight rebounds and Davonte Davis and Marchelus Avery adding 10 points apiece.
Anthony Roy (27 points) and Marcus Hall (21) led the offense for first-year Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb. Hall scored 16 of his points on 6-for-8 shooting in the first half, going 3-for-4 from deep. Roy finished with seven 3-pointers.
In the second half, Green Bay started strong, going 4-for-6 from the floor, but followed it up with a run of 5:38 without a made field goal, going 0-for-6 in the stretch. In that time, Oklahoma State ballooned their lead up to 19 points, outshooting Green Bay 57.9 percent to 36.4 percent in the first 10 minutes of the half.
Oklahoma State excelled on the boards, outrebounding Green Bay 43-25. Of those rebounds the home side had 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 20 second-chance points for the Cowboys, compared to only four for the Phoenix.
New head coach Steve Lutz also showed the Cowboys’ depth, rotating 11 players into the game, with his bench outscoring the Green Bay bench 24-6.
Green Bay scored 14 of the first 21 points, in a chaotic start to the game where the two sides combined for 19 turnovers. The first half included nine lead changes between the two teams, and Oklahoma State entered the halftime locker room up a point thanks to Thompson’s 3-point shot with 49 seconds remaining.
Khalil Brantley of the Cowboys hit an impressive off-balance trey at the halftime buzzer, but after official review it was called off for not going off before the clock hit zero.
Lutz earned a victory in his first game coaching the Cowboys after two seasons leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
–Field Level Media
