Game Notes: South Carolina State

Sunday, December 31

Stillwater

2:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

South Carolina State

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Image Taken at Oklahoma State Cowboy Basketball vs Tulsa, Sunday, December 10, 2023, Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK. Addison Skaggs/OSU Athletics.

Photo by: Oklahoma State University Athletics

December 30, 2023 | Cowboy Basketball

OSU Notes (PDF)Watch Listen Buy Tickets Live Stats

South Carolina State (4-11) at Oklahoma State (6-5)
Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023 | 2:01 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
TV: ESPN+ (Mike Wolfe & Bryndon Manzer)
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Internet Radio: okstate.com/listen & The Varsity Sports App
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: First meeting

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Full Game Notes PDF

The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (6-5) close out 2023 with a 2 p.m. New Year's Eve tipoff against the South Carolina State Bulldogs (4-11) inside historic Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Fans can purchase 300-level seats for just $1 at okstate.com/tickets.
OSU has won three straight and five of its last seven on the heels of a 1-3 start.
The Cowboys shot better than 40% from long range in pre-Christmas wins over Tulsa, ORU and Wofford (37/83, .446) and will look to continue that momentum on the other side, despite an 11-day layoff.

Watch:
The game will air on ESPN+ with Mike Wolfe and Bryndon Manzer. Subscribe to ESPN's over-the-top streaming service for $10.99/month ($110/year) or bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for as little as $14.99/month. Visit plus.espn.com for more information.

Listen:
Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb describe the action across the Cowboy Radio Network. Visit okstate.com/radio for a full list of network affiliates. Fans outside the listening area can tune in via the Varsity Sports App or at okstate.com/listen.

Mike Boynton Show:
Hear the latest insights from head coach Mike Boynton Jr. by tuning in to his weekly radio show on the Cowboy Radio Network. The program airs Thursday nights (6-7 p.m.) from the Rib Crib in Stillwater.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Dec. 20, 2023 (Stillwater) | OSU 76, Wofford 70

OSU hit 15 threes in a win over Wofford.
Bryce Thompson made 5-of-7 from deep on his way to a team-high 19 points and Javon Small made 4-of-7 for 14 points.
Small also finished with five assists -- three of them during a 7-0 OSU run that pushed a 67-64 lead out to double digits with 1:00 to play.
Quion Williams packaged seven rebounds, four steals and seven assists.
Corey Tripp scored 16 of his 24 after halftime for Wofford, which trailed by 13 early before rallying to take the lead early in the second half.
With Wofford's defense clogging the interior, OSU took more than half of its shots from the perimeter but knocked down 15-of-33 (.455).
The Terriers outshot their hosts 49.2% to 45.9% and outscored them 46-14 in the paint but made just 6-of-21 threes.
Neither side missed a free throw (a first in the 80+ years that OSU has kept box scores). OSU went 5-for-5 and Wofford 4-for-4.

Three-mendous Shooters:

OSU's 29 threes in wins of ORU and Wofford mark the best two-game stretch in school history (28 was the previous standard, set late in the 2018-19 season when they drilled 17 against Texas Tech and 11 the next game against Kansas).
The Cowboys have hit double-digit triples on five occasions this season -- one shy of their 2022-23 total and more than they managed in any of the three seasons before that.

Feeling Right at Home:

OSU is 40-12 in Boynton Era non-conference home games (5-2 this season).
OSU is shooting better than 40% from three at home this year (11.4 per game on 40.6% accuracy) led by Bryce Thompson (15/26, .577), Javon Small (15/33, .455) and Jarius Hicklen (14/32, .438).
Small has posted a better than 5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in his first six games at GIA (36 assists, seven turnovers).

Trending:

The Cowboys have been credited with assists on 61.3% of their baskets this year (23rd nationally) and held opponents to a 40.8% assist rate (12th). OSU is one of just three teams that rank among the top-25 in both categories, along with Auburn and Colorado.
The Cowboys' 77.4% assist percentage against ORU (24 A, 31 FG) was their highest in nearly four years. They followed it up three days later with a 75% effort against Wofford (21 A, 28 FG).
The Cowboys last posted 75+% assist rates in consecutive games during Doug Gottlieb's senior season (1999-00) when they totaled 39 assists on 49 field goals in a pair of NCAA tournament games against Seton Hall and Florida.
Rim protection has been a point of pride under seventh-year head coach Mike Boynton Jr. whose teams led the Big 12 in blocks per game in each of the three previous seasons. His Cowboys have blocked exactly 500 shots since the start of the 2020-21 season (16th-most nationally).
OSU is 6-0 this year when leading at the half but 0-5 when tied or trailing.
Going back to last year, OSU has held 20 straight opponents under 80 points.
Over the last two seasons, OSU is 24-4 when finishing with a higher shooting percentage than the opposition.
In their six wins, the Cowboys have averaged 83.7 points, 20.7 assists and 12.7 threes per game. They've made nearly half of their shots (.497), including 42.7% from deep.
In their five losses, the Cowboys have shot just 40.0% and made half as many threes (6.2) on 27.9% accuracy. Opponents have hit 45.7%, including 37.5% of their threes.OSU ranks No. 8 nationally in defensive rebounding percentage, snapping up 77.4% of opponent misses.
The Cowboys have finished at 75% or better on the the defensive glass in each of their last eight games. That's the longest such streak in school history. In fact, prior to this year it had never been done more than four times in a row.
Javon Small is the first OSU player since Marcus Smart to start a season with 50-or-more assists in his first 10 contests (51). Smart had 52 in the first 10 games of the 2012-13 season and went on to win Big 12 Player of the Year honors.

The Series with South Carolina State:

OSU has never faced South Carolina State.
The Bulldogs are the last of four first-time foes on the Cowboys' 2023-24 non-conference schedule. OSU faced St. Bonaventure and Notre Dame at the Legends Classic in Brooklyn and defeated Wofford on Dec. 20.
The Cowboys are 6-3 all-time on New Year's Eve. A year ago, they rang in 2023 and Big 12 play with a road game at Kansas.

Scouting the Bulldogs:

Longtime Bob Huggins assistant Erik Martin (2006-07 at Kansas State and 2007-22 at West Virginia) is in his second year as head coach at South Carolina State.
The 52-year old Martin played for Oklahoma State alumnus Moe Iba at TCU (1988-90) before finishing out his collegiate career with Huggins at Cincinnati (1991-93). He was a key reserve on the Bearcats' 1991 Final Four team and a second team all-conference performer the following year when Cincinnati returned to the Elite Eight
Picked last in the MEAC preseason poll, SCSU (4-10) needs just one more victory to match its 2022-23 win total (5-26).
A dozen Bulldogs average anywhere from 9-22 minutes. Eight of them weren't with the team a season ago.
SCSU reserves have clocked 48.6% of the overall minutes (second-most nationally behind Alabama A&M's 49.5%) and collectively account for 35.5 points per contest (9th).
The most-productive of the holdovers, 6-6 junior forward Davion Everett, is SCSU's leading scorer (10.1 ppg) and rebounder (7.1 rpg). Nearly half (51) of his 106 boards have come on the offensive end.
The newcomers are a mixture of freshmen and junior college transfers.
6-3 Seward County Community College product Wilson Dubinsky (8.0 ppg) has hit a team-high 30 threes on 32.3% accuracy.
Point guard responsibilities have been split between 6-2 freshman Mitchell Taylor (8.3 ppg, team-best 2.5 apg) and 6-1 JUCO transfer Michael Teal (7.0 ppg, 2.1 apg).
6-10 Drayton Jones (5.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg, team-high 15 blocks) is one of the MEAC's top freshmen out Oak Hill Academy.
Martin's SCSU teams play a fast and aggressive style, forcing 3.5 blocks and 14.9 turnovers. Opponents are averaging 82.7 points on 47.0% shooting.
On offense, the Bulldogs get the rim and the foul line with regularity, averaging more than 22 free throw attempts. 73.8% of their shots come from inside the arc and 59.8% of their points are off 2-point field goals (12th).
Offensive rebounding has been another point of emphasis. The Bulldogs rank fifth nationally in that category (16.1) after finishing second in 2022-23 (13.8).
Sunday's visit to Stillwater marks the last of 11 non-conference road games on SCSU's 2023-24 calendar. The Bulldogs face a quick turnaround after Friday's 91-62 loss at Nebraska. In that game, the Bulldogs endured a miserable start, making just 5-of-42 shots (.119) on their way to a 50-11 halftime deficit.
Over the past two seasons SCSU is 1-29 on the road with 22 straight losses. The lone victory came Nov. 29, 2022 at East Carolina.

A Cowboy win would...

Be their fourth straight and sixth in the last eight outings on the heels of a 1-3 start.
Guarantee a winning non-conference record for the 37th consecutive season.
Up their home record to 6-2.
Make them 1-0 all-time vs. SCSU.
Boost their non-conference record under Boynton to 62-29 (41-12 at GIA).

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Up Next: Chicago State
Wednesday, Jan. 3 | 6 p.m. CT | ESPN+

OSU plays its final pre-conference tune-up Wednesday against Chicago State.
The Cowboys are 2-0 all-time against CSU. Both meetings took place at GIA during the Leonard Hamilton Era. Darwyn Alexander led the way with 16 points in a 67-59 Cowboy win on Jan. 3, 1990 and Richard Dumas supplied 21 in a 64-61 OSU victory on Dec. 10, 1988.
CSU is the only current NCAA Division I school without a conference home after leaving the WAC two years ago.
Being an independent means scheduling creatively. CSU played its 19th game on Saturday. No other DI program had played more than 15 coming into the weekend. No. 20 comes Jan. 2 at Kansas State and No. 21 is just 23 hours later at OSU.
The Cougars are in their third year under head coach Gerald Gillion. He won seven games his first year, matching the program's combined win total from the three previous seasons, and improved to 11-20 last year. It marked the first time since the 2013-14 season that a CSU team has won double-digit games.
Progress continues in 2022-23 with a 7-12 start, highlighted by an upset of then-No. 25 Northwestern. It was the program's first over a nationally-ranked opponent in 18 attempts.