Cowboy Basketball puts home streak on the line Tuesday against No. 25 UCF

Tuesday, January 6

Stillwater

7:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

UCF

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Cowboy Basketball puts home streak on the line Tuesday against No. 25 UCF

January 05, 2026 | Cowboy Basketball

Cowboy Notes (PDF)UCF Notes (PDF)

25/rv UCF (12-1, 1-0) at -/rv OKLAHOMA STATE (12-2, 0-1)
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 | 7:01 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
Watch: ESPN+ (Adam Hildebrandt & Bryndon Manzer)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network / The Varsity App (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: UCF leads 4-1 (1-1 in Stillwater)
Last: March 5, 2025 in Orlando (UCF, 83-70)

Coaches:
Steve Lutz (Texas Lutheran '95) -- 2nd Season at OSU (29-20); 5th Overall (98-55)
Johnny Dawkins (Duke '86) -- 10th Season at UCF (180-121), 18th Overall (336-236)

Opening Tips:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys put their unbeaten home record on the line Tuesday night against a UCF team that hasn't lost since early November.
OSU dropped its opener on Saturday at No. 15 Texas Tech, 102-80. Anthony Roy scored 22 points on 6-of-8 three-point shooting and Parsa Fallah added 20 points to reach 1,000 for his NCAA career, but the Cowboys couldn't keep pace with Texas Tech's 17 three-pointers (tied for the most ever by an OSU opponent).
Second-year head coach Steve Lutz has helped restore home court advantage inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. A 10-game home winning streak is the program's longest since 2014.
The Cowboys are averaging 94.0 points on 50.5% shooting at home this season. They've outscored opponents by 16.6 points and outrebounded them by 8.6 per game.
The Knights ride an 11-game winning streak after knocking off Kansas, 81-75, in Saturday's Big 12 opener. Their only loss came on Nov. 8 to a Vanderbilt team that is currently 14-0.
OSU and UCF split two games last year with each side protecting home court. OSU won a wild, 104-95 game in Stillwater but fell two weeks later in Orlando, 83-70.
Roy (17.7 ppg) is one of five Cowboys who are averaging double-figure points. The senior has scored at least 20 in each of the last three games and is 14-of-24 from deep over that span (.583). He's now the tenth player in OSU history to hit multiple threes in 10+ consecutive games.
Sophomore guard Vyctorius Miller (15.1 ppg) is shooting 46% from three-point range.
Fallah (13.6 ppg) is the team's top rebounder (6.1 rpg) and ranks among the NCAA field goal percentage leaders (19th, .626).
Point guards Jaylen Curry (5.2 apg) and Kanye Clary (4.6 apg) have been the primary table-setters for the nation's sixth-fastest attack, per KenPom's adjusted tempo. Curry's 4.13 A:TO Ratio ranks seventh nationally.
The Cowboys come into the week ranked among the top-25 nationally in scoring offense (17th, 90.4), free throw makes (20th, 19.6) and winning percentage (25th, .857).
Reserves have clocked a Big 12-best 41.7% of the OSU minutes and are averaging 34.1 points.
This is the second in a stretch of three straight games against AP top-25 opponents, continuing Saturday at No. 3 Iowa State. Seven Big 12 teams are now nationally-ranked.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Saturday, Jan. 3 (Lubbock, Texas) | #15 Texas Tech 102, OSU 80

Parsa Fallah collected the 1,000^th point of his collegiate career, but hot-shooting Texas Tech buried 17 threes on its way to a 102-80 victory in the Big 12 opener for both sides.
Anthony Roy paced the Cowboys with his third straight 20-point performance -- 22 on 6-of-8 three-point shooting.
Fallah added 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting. His 1,000th came on a free throw with 16:10 to play in the game.
J.T. Toppin (23 points, 14 rebounds) and Christian Anderson (19 points, 13 assists) had double-doubles for the Red Raiders who made 17-of-37 threes -- tied for the most ever made by an OSU foe.
Tech scored 56 second-half points to push an eight point halftime lead to as many as 22 late.
OSU lost for the first time under Steve Lutz when scoring at least 80 points. Prior to it, the Cowboys had been 24-0 (12-0 this season).
The Cowboys averaged a season-low 1.04 points on their 76 possessions and surrendered a season-high 1.34. South Florida's 1.16 is the next highest opponent average this season.

Home Cookin':

OSU's 10-game home winning streak is its longest since 2014. Marcus Smart-led Cowboy teams strung together 12 consecutive GIA wins between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.
It's the 25^th double-digit streak in GIA history.

OSU Records // Longest Home Winning Streaks:
46 -- Jan. 9, 1936 to Dec. 11, 1940
31 -- Feb. 19, 1943 to Dec. 1, 1945
29 -- Mar. 8, 2003 to Mar. 2, 2005
28 -- Mar. 15, 1990 to Feb. 8, 1992
27 -- Jan. 4, 1952 to Jan. 12, 1954
24 -- Feb. 2, 1994 to Dec. 23, 1995
17 -- Feb. 19, 2006 to Feb. 10, 2007
17 -- Jan. 23, 2002 to Feb. 5, 2003
16 -- Feb 4, 2009 to Jan. 27, 2010
16 -- Feb. 20, 1999 to Mar. 1, 2000
14 -- Nov. 29, 1988 to Feb. 22, 1989
13 -- Feb. 13, 2010 to Jan. 19, 2011
13 -- Feb. 29, 1964 to Dec. 9, 1965
13 -- Dec. 4, 1947 to Dec. 20, 1948
13 -- Jan. 10, 1941 to Feb. 14, 1942
12 -- Mar. 2, 2013 to Jan. 25, 2014
12 -- Jan. 30, 1980 to Feb. 4, 1981
12 -- Feb. 12, 1962 to Feb. 16, 1963
11 -- Feb. 19, 1997 to Dec. 23, 1997
11 -- Feb. 14, 1961 to Jan. 6, 1962
10 – Nov. 4, 2025 to Present
10 -- Feb. 22, 1958 to Feb. 16, 1959
10 -- Mar. 4, 1950 to Feb. 17, 1951
10 -- Jan. 8, 1949 to Dec. 7, 1949
10 -- Jan. 15, 1946 to Dec. 23, 1946

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Roy on a Roll:

Anthony Roy has made 36 consecutive free throw attempts, last missing Nov. 19 against South Florida.
Roy's streak is the sixth longest in OSU history -- just seven shy of the record (43), currently held by Phil Forte (2013) and Joe Smith (1967).

OSU Records // Consecutive Free Throws Made:
43 -- Phil Forte -- 2/13/2013 // 11/28/2013
43 -- Joe Smith -- 12/13/1967 // 12/30/1967
41 -- Phil Forte -- 1/10/2015 // 1/31/2015
40 -- Arlen Clark -- 2/21/1959 // 3/7/1959
39 -- Joey Graham -- 1/3/2005 // 1/30/2005
36 -- Anthony Roy -- 11/22/2025 // Current

The Series with UCF:

UCF is one of three Big 12 opponents that the Cowboys will see twice during the 2025-26 regular season (Iowa State and TCU are the others).
UCF has won four of the five all-time meetings between the schools. All have taken place over the past four seasons, beginning with a chance encounter in the semifinals of the 2022 Baha Mar Bahamas Championship and continuing with UCF's move to the Big 12.
OSU and UCF split two games last season with each side protecting its home floor. Bryce Thompson scored a career-high 25 points in a 104-95 Cowboy win in Stillwater on Feb. 19, 2025. The teams combined for 199 points -- most ever in a regulation Big 12 game involving OSU.
Two weeks later in Orlando, UCF rode a 36-point effort from senior Darius Johnson to an 83-70 win.
The Cowboys bounced back to defeat Cincinnati in their Big 12 finale and won a three-way tiebreaker over the Knights and Bearcats for the No. 12 seed in the conference tournament.
The Knights defeated the Cowboys twice over the last two weeks of the 2023-24 season -- the first in Stillwater and the latter in the first round of the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.

Scouting the Knights:

UCF has been one of the Big 12's biggest surprises.
The Knights lost every scholarship player off of last year's 20-17 team that made the finals of the inaugural Crown Basketball Classic and were picked 14^th out of 16 in this year's Big 12 preseason poll.
Instead, 10^th year head coach Johnny Dawkins has his new-look team out to a 12-1 start and an 11-game winning streak after knocking off Kansas, 81-75, in Saturday's conference opener.
UCF's lone loss came nearly two months ago (on Nov. 8) to a still-unbeaten Vanderbilt.
Four Knights are averaging in double-figures, led by 6-5 senior Riley Kugel (14.1 ppg) – a Mississippi State transfer who started his career at Florida.
6-9 junior Jordan Burks – a former Kentucky Wildcat who played last year at Georgetown – averages 13.8 points and is shooting better than 40% from deep.
A pair of All-Horizon League performers out of UW-Milwaukee have also played prominent roles.
6-8 junior Jamichael Stillwell (12.2 ppg, 8.7 rpg) is the top rebounder for a UCF team that ranks eighth nationally in offensive boards per game (14.5).
6-2 senior Themus Fulks (13.5 ppg) enters the week ranked 11^th on the NCAA assist leaderboard at 6.8 per game.
UCF ranks 15^th nationally in three-point percentage, knocking down an average 8.8 per game on 39.0% accuracy, and 20^th in rebounding margin (+9.5). Kansas (39-38) is the only team that has bested the Knights on the boards this season.
Dawkins, the 1986 NCAA player of the year at Duke, played 10 seasons in the NBA before moving on to a successful coaching career. He won a pair of NIT championships during an eight-year run at Stanford (2008-16) and has guided the Knights to five postseason appearances, highlighted by a first-round win in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Matchup Mashup:

Three former Knights have finished their respective careers at OSU, most recently Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery who averaged 11.4 points for the 2024-25 Cowboys. Twin brothers Joey and Stephen Graham started their collegiate careers at UCF (2000-02) before helping OSU to back-to-back Big 12 tournament titles and 2004 Final Four appearance.
On the flip side, former Cowboy Arturo Dean, the 2025 Big 12 steals leader, is redshirting this season for UCF.
OSU (12^th) and UCF (11^th) both finished among the national leaders in adjusted tempo last season. They were the Big 12's highest finishers in that category since 2018 when Trae Young's Oklahoma Sooners ended the year at No. 4.
OSU has jumped to sixth in adjusted tempo this season while UCF has dialed it back a bit (112^th heading into this week).

A Cowboy win would...

Push their record to 13-2 and even their conference record at 1-1.
Extend their home winning streak to 11 games.
Make them 24-4 at home in parts of two seasons under Steve Lutz (8-3 in Big 12 play).
Make them 2-1 against UCF under Lutz (2-4 overall).
Be Lutz's 99^th career victory in parts of five seasons as a head coach and his 30^th with OSU (30-20, 99-55).
Make them 1-1 this season against AP top-25 teams.
Be the 141st Cowboy win against an AP top-25 team and the 79th inside GIA (79-85).

A Cowboy loss would...

Drop them to 12-3 (0-2) on the season.
Be their first home loss since falling to North Texas in last year's NIT quarterfinals.
Snap a 10-game home winning streak.
Drop their home Big 12 record under Lutz to 7-4.
Give them back-to-back losses for the first time since Mar. 1 and 5 of last season (at Baylor and at UCF).
Give UCF a 5-1 lead in the all-time series (2-1 in Stillwater).

Up Next: at Iowa State
Saturday, 3 p.m. CT, ESPN2

The Cowboys are back on the Big 12 road this Saturday to take on yet another red hot team.
Iowa State (14-0 heading into Wednesday's game at Baylor) opened Big 12 play with an 89-50 win over West Virginia.
ISU enters the week as one of just six remaining unbeatens, outscoring opponents by an average of 27.1 points (third nationally).
ISU also leads the Big 12 and ranks among the NCAA's top-10 in: Scoring Margin (3^rd, +27.1), Field Goal Percentage (3^rd, 53.1%), Three-Point Percentage (4^th, 41.9%), Turnover Margin (4^th, 7.2), Takeaways (6^th, 17.5) and Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (9^th, 1.88).
Tamin Lipsey is the national leader in assist-to-turnover ratio at 7.22. He's committed just nine turnovers in 11 games, spanning 339 minutes.
Going back to the start of the 2023-24 seaosn, the Cyclones are 42-2 inside Hilton Coliseum (9-0 this year).