Cowboys open Spanish tour with win over Cape Verde

Image Taken of Oklahoma State Cowboy Basketball at Atlético de Madrid, Tuesday, August 8, 2023, Club Atlético de Madrid, Spain. Mary Elizabeth Cordia/OSU Athletics

Photo by: Mary Elizabeth Cordia/Oklahoma S

August 08, 2023 | Cowboy Basketball

MADRID, Spain -- Quion Williams scored 19 points and the Oklahoma State men's basketball team opened its foreign tour with an impressive 86-79 victory over Cape Verde's senior national squad Tuesday evening at Canal de Isabel II Pabellon Avda.

The freshman trio of Justin McBride (14 points), Connor Dow (14) and Eric Dailey Jr. (12) also finished in double-figures for OSU, which led for all but two minutes. Javon Small handed out four assists.

"We had a lot of different guys step up in roles that we hoped they would be able to have this year," head coach Mike Boynton said. "Some of our young guys made some significant plays for us to close out the game."

When Cape Verde – a tiny island nation off the coast of West Africa -- makes its FIBA World Cup debut later this month, it will boast one of the tournament's most-experienced front lines, led by 7-foot-3 William Taveres. The former NBA center and current Real Madrid standout finished with game-highs 22 points and 13 rebounds against an OSU front court anchored by four freshmen.

"He's a load," Boynton said. "He gave us trouble in terms of putting our guys in foul trouble. The game is played very physically over here, and it took our young guys some time to adjust to that. But we just kept battling. We got some key steals over the course of the game. We took advantage of our youth and athleticism and really wore them down physically."

Ten Cowboys scored and nine clocked double-digit minutes.

OSU finished plus-eight in the turnover column, helped by 15 steals.

The Cowboys shot 47.1% from the field, including 10-of-28 from deep. Dow contributed four triples while McBride and Jarius Hicklen drilled two-each.

McBride's dunk with 3:53 to play in the first quarter put OSU in front for good and set off a 13-5 spurt to end the first quarter.

Williams provided a second quarter spark with nine points – six of them on second-chance opportunities.

Dailey took the torch from there, closing the first half with a transition dunk that put the Cowboys ahead 46-39 at halftime. The freshman added 10 more points over the last two quarters to help OSU put the game out of reach.

The tour continues later this week with games against select teams in Valencia (Thursday, Noon CT) and Barcelona (Sunday, Noon CT). Fans can watch both games live or on demand at OSUMax.com.