Fouls, turnovers, missed shots, and MISSED FREE THROWS sum up the first half in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It was not pretty, to say the least. The offense wasn’t able to find a grove, and it really cost them. It doesn’t help when the Cyclones are beat up and have to play a team who is in the Top 20 in tempo.

Without a key ballhandler like Gilbert, the offense really struggles at times to get things started. Personally, I would like more post-ups for Jefferson and Milan at the high post, especially when Lipsey is running out of gas late in the game. At this point in the season, you just can’t lean on your guards to do everything on offense and defense and expect the results to be the same as they were in December.

Hopefully, as the week goes on, both Gilbert and Curtis get healthier. You could see throughout the game tonight that Curtis was around 65-70% and didn’t have his legs for driving or jump shots. Getting healthy and staying in the 2-3 seed line is important moving forward, and facing Arizona on Saturday is a great opportunity to make up for the Cyclones’ mistakes tonight in Stillwater.

One bright side from the game is the confidence from Heise. He continues to look like a great jump shooter when his feet are set. We also saw some great drives from him as well. It’s something to be really encouraged about after a bad loss like this.

Final Score: Iowa State 68 - Oklahoma State 74

Leading Scorers:

Jefferson (ISU): 17 pts, 7-11FG, 9 reb, 5 ast

Ousmane (OSU): 25 pts, 7-11 FG, 6 reb