1-Minute Matchup: Cowboys Must Battle On The Boards At WVU

Saturday, January 9

Morgantown, WV

12 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

West Virginia

1-Minute Matchup: Cowboys Must Battle On The Boards At WVU

January 08, 2016 | Cowboy Basketball

STILLWATER – Not a team accustomed to getting pushed around in the paint, Oklahoma State's loss at Baylor left a bad taste in the mouths of the Cowboys.

OSU entered Tuesday's game in Waco, Texas with a +2.9 rebounding margin and had grabbed more boards than all but three of their opponents on the year. Then Baylor out-rebounded the Cowboys by 26 boards, including a 17-rebound performance by Baylor big-man Rico Gathers, who was only one rebound shy of OSU's team rebounding total of 18.

"Basically what happened at Baylor is that we just got out-worked," said Cowboy center Anthony Allen. "When it comes to me, I'm an ultra-competitive person, and this last game against Baylor really lit a fire under me. It's something that we just can't let happen again."

The Cowboys will get a chance to prove just that at West Virginia on Saturday. The Mountaineers "Press Virginia" defense leads the nation in steals, turnovers created and they also rank second in the country in offensive rebounds per game at 17.3 per game.

WVU forward Jonathan Holton ranks eighth in the country with 4.07 offensive rebounds per game.

Game Center
• Oklahoma State (9-5, 1-1 Big 12) at No. 17/15 West Virginia (13-1, 2-0 Big 12)
• Date/Tipoff: Jan. 9, 2016 / 12 p.m. Central
• Tickets: wvusports.com
• TV: ESPNU (Dave Leno & Kevin Lehman)
• Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
• Satellite Radio: Sirius & XM 84 (WVU broadcast)
• Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
• Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
• OSU Game Notes

The Basics
• Oklahoma State (9-5 overall; 1-1 Big 12) travels to West Virginia (13-1, 2-0 Big 12) for a Saturday matinee game on ESPNU. The Mountaineers took both meetings with the Cowboys last season, and are a perfect 6-0 at home in 2015-16. OSU still leads the overall series, 4-3.

On the Air
• ESPNU will have all the action between the Cowboys and Mountaineers starting at 12 p.m. Central. Dave Leno and Kevin Lehman will have the call from Morgantown, West Virginia. As always, the game can be heard on the Cowboy Radio Network with Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb.

West Virginia Snapshot
• The Mountaineers "Press Virginia" defense leads the nation in both steals (11.6 SPG) and turnovers forced (21.14) per game. Three WVU players rank among the Big 12's top eight players in steals per contest; Jevon Carter (T3rd, 2.07), Daxter Miles (T3rd, 2.07) and Tarik Phillip (8th, 1.79). WVU's defensive possessions average only 15.2 seconds each, which ranks behind only The Citadel (14.7) and Southern Utah (14.9).
• After forcing turnovers, the Mountaineers are among the nation's best in getting out in transition. West Virginia fields the nation's seventh ranked scoring offense at 86.6 points per game, and their 23.0 point scoring margin is second nationally.
• Securing the glass will be a key for the Cowboys against the Mountaineers. WVU is second in the country with 17.3 offensive rebounds per game thanks in large part to Jonathan Holton and Devin Williams. Holton is hauling in 4.07 offensive boards per game, which ranks eighth in the NCAA, while Williams ranks 38th with 3.43 per game.
• West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins is a veteran of nearly 800 wins and 21 trips to the NCAA Tournament. Huggins took both Cincinnati (1992) and his alma mater West Virginia (2010) to the Final Four.

Inside the Series with West Virginia
• OSU and WVU met only once prior to becoming Big 12 Conference mates for the 2012-13 season, and in that game the No. 7 ranked Mountaineers squad took down the Cowboys, 67-49, in Lexington, Ky., in 1958. WVU's Jerry West, then a junior, posted 12 points and 12 rebounds to help the Mountaineers take down the Cowboys that day, and would lead West Virginia to the NCAA Tournament title game where he would be named the Final Four MOP despite losing in the title game to California, 71-70.
• OSU won the first four games against WVU as Big 12 opponents, but the Mountaineers took both meetings against the Cowboys last season. Oklahoma State is still 2-1 in Morgantown despite last year's loss in the regular season finale.
• As a freshman on Jan. 26, 2013, Phil Forte came off the bench to hit six 3-pointers in a 26-point performance in the first meeting between these two programs as Big 12 foes. Forte's 26 points are tied for the fourth best "off the bench" performance in school history in terms of both points and 3-point field goals, and OSU took the game, 80-66.

Oklahoma State Snapshot
• The Cowboys had forged an identity as a staunch defensive unit over its past few games, but Baylor was able to score an opponent-season high 79 points on Tuesday due in large part to their rebounding advantage. The Bears posted a +26 rebounding margin, which is tied for the seventh largest ever by a Cowboy opponent. Rico Gathers tied an opponent season-high with 17 rebounds - just one less than OSU's team total of 18.
• Prior to the Baylor game, OSU had held its previous two opponents under 50 points and to 30.0 percent shooting from the floor. The Cowboys forced TCU to 1-of-17 shooting from 3-point in a 69-48 victory over the Horned Frogs.
• The Cowboys field a solid defensive unit that ranks second in the Big 12 and 28th nationally in scoring defense at 63.5 points per game. OSU is holding its opponents to 38.7 percent shooting, which also ranks second in the league and 29th in the country. The Cowboys defense starts at the rim, where they rank second in the Big 12 and 23rd in the NCAA with 5.57 blocked shots per game.
• Freshman Jawun Evans is coming off a career-high nine assist game at Baylor, which is tied for the third best performance by an OSU freshman in school history. The Dallas native now ranks sixth in the Big 12 and with 4.64 assists per game, which is seventh among all freshmen nationwide. Evans is also second in rebounding among Big 12 point guards behind only K-State's Justin Edwards (5.9 RPG).
• OSU has a knack for making opponents pay from the charity stripe. The Cowboys rank fifth in the Big 12 in total free throws made (231) but rank second the league and 21st nationally with a free throw mark of 75.0 percent. Jeff Newberry leads the OSU efforts from the free throw line. At 52-of-59 (.881), Newberry ranks fourth in the league and 25th nationally.
• Senior Phil Forte injured his elbow in the first half of the win over Towson, which snapped his streak of consecutive games played at 102. The senior hadn't missed a single game in his career up to that point. Forte was a Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honoree, and needs just 55 three-pointers to tie Keiton Page (2008-12) for the school record. At the time, he ranked third in the Big 12 in career scoring and third in the country in career 3-pointers.
• Even counting an injured Forte, OSU fields one of the least experienced lineups in the country. In the Big 12, only Kansas State (1.52 years per player) and TCU (1.46) have fewer years of Division I experience than the Cowboys (1.59), who rank 225th in the country in Division I experience.
• Head coach Travis Ford enters his eighth season with the Cowboys, and ranks third in school history in both total wins (152) and win percentage (61.3 percent). Ford ranks behind only Eddie Sutton and Mr. Henry Iba in both categories.