Cowboys To Play Host To Sam Houston On Tuesday Night

Tuesday, December 6

Stillwater, OK

8 P.M. CT

Oklahoma State University

Sam Houston

Tickets

Photo by: USA Today Sports Images

December 05, 2022 | Cowboy Basketball

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Facing Sam Houston - Here's The Scout

Oklahoma State will return home for one game as it plays host to Sam Houston on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU. Chuckie Kempf & King McClure will have the call while Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb will have the call on radio. Cowboy fans can also listen to the game on the Varsity Network App.
Sam Houston comes into the game with a 7-1 record after defeating Dallas Christian, 111-58, at home on Saturday. The Bearkats have found success on the road this season against Power 5 opponents. SHU defeated Oklahoma, 52-51, to open the season before beating Utah, 65-55, on Nov. 17. Coming into the week, Utah and Oklahoma have posted a combined record of 12-4 through their Saturday games.
Sam Houston conquered the Fort Myers Tip-off Palms Division with an 80-49 runaway victory over South Dakota in the championship game earlier this year at the Suncoast Credit Union Arena. The Bearkats won their two contests by an average of 32.5 points after knocking off Northern Illinois 88-54, as well, to improve on the best start since the 2007-08 season.
The win over Oklahoma to open the season was the first win for the Kats over a Power 5 team under head coach Jason Hooten and the first one since a 107-89 victory at Auburn in 2009.

The New Sheriffs In Town

John-Michael Wright, a High Point transfer, brings experience and poise to the Oklahoma State locker room. In the 2021-22 season, his junior year of eligibility, he played and started in all 32 games for High Point while averaging 34.9 minutes per contest. He shot .410 from the field and .363 from behind the arc as he averaged 18.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists.
He finished the year with the eighth-best assist-turnover ratio in the Big South, the ninth-best field goal percentage, had the second-most free throw attempts (third-most made), led the conference in scoring average and had the eighth-most assists.
Alongside Wright from the transfer ranks is Caleb Asberry from Texas State. He started all 29 games during the 2021-22 season, the only Bobcat to do that, as he led the team in scoring with a career-high 13.6 points and also paced the team in minutes played (847), steals (37), three-pointers made (63).
Asberry was notably a two-time All-Sun Belt (2021: Third Team, 2022: First Team) selection.
The lone freshman of the group, Quion Williams, joins the Cowboys from Jonesboro. During his high school career, Williams helped lead his team to two state championships and a 30-3 record.

Early Season Quick Hitters

Moussa Cisse has dominated through eight games with four double-doubles to his name so far. He is tied with Jalen Wilson of Kansas for most in the conference. The two have combined for eight, the rest of the conference combined has eight on the year.
As of Tuesday morning, OSU has the most blocked shots in the conference, six ahead of Kansas in second place.
Along those lines, Oklahoma State is fourth in the conference in offensive rebounds per game, first in defensive rebounds per game, fourth in defensive rebound percentage, third in offensive rebound percentage and has the fourth-longest active unbeaten streak.
Oklahoma State's two transfers, John-Michael Wright and Caleb Asberry, have combined to shoot 45-for-114 (.395) from the field with 142 points, 25 three-point shots made and have combined to shoot 27-for-27 from the free throw line this season.
Meanwhile on the returning side, Bryce Thompson and Avery Anderson III have combined to shoot 66-for-168 (.393) from the field with 188 points.
Between the four, the group has combined to score 330 of OSU's first 590 points (56%) to start the season. From behind the arc, the four Cowboys have hit 35 three-point shots - which is 78 percent of OSU's made three pointers so far through eight games.
On the rebounding front, Kalib Boone and Cisse have brought in 130 of OSU's first 323 rebounds (40%) of the 2022-23 season.
Kalib Boone made his first career three-point basket on Sunday against PVAMU.
OSU has outscored foes 141-98 (+43) in the first 10 minutes of the first half and has outscored its opponents 162-102 (+60) in the first 10 minutes of the second period.
In total, the Cowboys have outscored their opponents by 103 points in the first 10 minutes of the halves.
As of Saturday night, OSU was tied with Texas Tech for the second-fewest halves at home allowing 30 or more points over the past eight home contests with six dating back to last season. Only Iowa State, with three, had allowed fewer in the time span.

The Defense Lately

Has not allowed 30 points in five of the past six halves of action and hasn't let opponents reach that mark in 16 of the past 24 dating back to last season.
Has held teams to 60 or less points in two of the past three games and hasn't allowed a team to score 61 or more in five of their past 10 games dating back to last year.
Has held teams to less than 40 percent shooting from the field in 10-straight games dating back to last year and has done so in 15 of their past 17 games.
Has held teams to less than 10 points in the first 10 minutes of a game three times this season.

Moussa Is A Monster

If you only counted his blocks at home (14), Moussa Cisse would still have the most blocks in the Big 12 as of Dec. 2 with a two-block lead. He has recorded at least one block in each of his past 18 games. There have been just three games in his Oklahoma State career in which he did not record at least one block.
Through the first four home games this season, Cisse is averaging a block approximately every 7 minutes of his playing time in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
As of Friday, he checked in at No. 6 in Kenpom's block percentage standings, only behind Auburn's Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell, Ibrahima Diallo of San Jose State, Tim Ighoefe of Cal Baptist and Western Kentucky's Jamarion Sharp.
In his last two home games, Cisse has combined to post 25 points, seven blocks and 19 rebounds.
He has found plenty of success in 12 games against teams from the state of Texas during his time at OSU as he's posted 92 points, 72 rebounds and 28 blocks. On average, that's 7.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks.

Moussa Got Better Last Season - And Here's The Numbers To Show It

Based on his first 15 games in Stillwater last season, in comparison to the final 15 of last year, the evidence shows Moussa Cisse got better as the year went along and was playing his best basketball at the end of the season.
Through his first 15 contests as a Cowboys, Cisse was shooting 49.2 percent from the field while averaging 5.4 rebounds, 6.4 points and was playing 17.5 minutes per game.
Flip it to the last 15 games, and Cisse shot 61.5 percent from the field while averaging 7.5 rebounds with 8.1 points and was playing 22.4 minutes per game.
Just looking at the last 10 games of the season, he recorded a double-double in three contests (West Virginia, Baylor and Oklahoma) and had multi-digit rebounds in six of them, including all of the final four.
In that stretch of games down the stretch, the numbers immediately jump out from the West Virginia win on Feb. 12. Cisse posted 18 points with 10 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive side of the ball.

Avery Anderson In The Records

Avery Anderson III is set for his fourth season as a Cowboys and has the opportunity to leave his mark all over the Cowboy record book.
Most notably, at 920 career points Anderson is likely to become the 45th Cowboy in program history to record 1,000 or more points in a career. This would mark back-to-back seasons for OSU to have a player achieve this mark after Isaac Likekele did so last season, as well.
A point of pride for Anderson has been his free throw shooting, and he currently stands with the seventh-best percentage in Big 12 play in school history.
A sneaky good defender, he also has the opportunity to finish inside the top-10 for steals in Big 12 games in a Cowboy career.
With 95 under his belt already, it's likely he will reach 100 games played in a career.

The Winning Formula This Year

In its five wins this season, Oklahoma State has four players (Avery Anderson III, Kalib Boone, Bryce Thompson and John-Michael Wright) averaging at least 11 points per game.
The Cowboys have shot 33.7 percent from behind the arc in their victories while allowing their opponents an average of just 63 points per game.
For comparison, in the three losses just two players (Anderson and Caleb Asberry) have averaged at least 10 points or more while OSU has shot 21.3 percent from three. Opponents have still averaged just 65 points per game in the Cowboy losses.
Sharing the ball, alongside sharing the scoring, has been key as well. OSU has averaged 15.8 assists per game in wins while averaging 9.3 in losses.
Turnovers have been another winning indicator as the Cowboys have averaged 13.6 in wins while forcing an average of 16.0 in contrast to an average of 16.3 in losses while opponents are averaging 12.3.

An Oklahoma State Win Would...

Improve the Cowboys to 3-0 all-time in the Sam Houston series.
Push OSU to 3-0 at home against Sam Houston.
Be the Cowboys' 842th win at home all-time and their 450th non-conference home win. It would also be OSU's 235th non-conference home win since 1989.
Be OSU's third-straight win at home this season. OSU has won nine of its past 12 games inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Give OSU its second win over a Kenpom top-100 opponent as Sam Houston comes into the week at 92. OSU also defeated No. 95 DePaul, 82-78, in The Bahamas.
Improve OSU to 6-3 on the season for the second-straight season through the first nine games of the year.

Streaks and Trends Coming

OSU has made at least one three-pointer in 735 consecutive games dating back to Jan. 13, 2001.
The Cowboys have posted ten or more assists in 17 of their past 20 games dating back to last season.
Has held teams to less than 40 percent shooting from the field in ten-straight games dating back to last year and has done so in 15 of their past 17 games.
The Cowboys have taken advantage of their size in the frontcourt, reaching at least ten offensive rebounds in seven of eight games this season.
That size has also given the Cowboys an edge in the paint offensively, outsourcing seven of eight opponents in the paint.
Moussa Cisse has now recorded at least one block in each of his past 18 games. There have been just three games in his Oklahoma State career in which he did not record at least one block.
The Cowboys have made 10 or more free throws in five of the first eight games this season after doing so in 18 of their 30 games last season.
The Cowboys have won three-straight games against teams from the state of Texas dating back to last season. Against teams from the Lone Star State in non-conference play, OSU has won 17 of its past 20 games dating back to the 2011-12 season.