Oklahoma State falls 87-68 to Cincinnati, eliminated from Big 12 Tournament

Dillon Mitchell recorded 18 points and a career-best 15 rebounds, while Day Day Thomas added 21 points, leading No. 13 seed Cincinnati to an 87-68 victory over No. 12 seed Oklahoma State in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday.

Josh Reed contributed 19 points, and Dan Skillings Jr. scored 13 with several high-flying dunks, propelling the Bearcats (18-14) into the second round where they will face fifth-seeded Iowa State on Wednesday.

Cincinnati started the season strong, winning 10 of its first 11 games and reaching No. 14 in the AP Top 25. However, they struggled in conference play, losing their first four Big 12 games and enduring another four-game skid in late January and early February. On Tuesday, the Bearcats played like a ranked team, avenging a loss to Oklahoma State (15-17) in Stillwater last weekend. Cincinnati led 38-26 at halftime and never allowed the Cowboys to get within 10 points after that.

Oklahoma State was hindered by the absence of top scorer and rebounder Abou Ousmane, who played only nine minutes before fouling out after receiving a technical foul in the second half. He finished with just four points and one rebound. Connor Dow led the Cowboys with a career-high 12 points, including four 3-pointers.

Coach Lutz

Give credit where credit is due. Give Coach Miller and his team a lot of credit. They played with a lot of toughness, a lot of discipline today. We did not, at the end of the day we just, we did not perform well today. We did not play our best basketball and they played better than us, therefore they won. So hats off to them, they get to play another day and we get to go home and figure out what the next step is. But I like the direction that our program is headed and know that we have a big time future here with Cowboy basketball

Playing in a post-season tournament if available?

Yeah, we're absolutely open to it. I think these guys deserve it.

Takeaways:

1. Cincinnati must secure a few more wins, or possibly win the entire tournament, to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament field.
2. Oklahoma State’s Steve Lutz, in his first year as head coach, had been undefeated in conference tournament games as a Division I head coach before this loss, with an 8-0 record in previous seasons at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Western Kentucky.

Key Moment: The Bearcats were leading 46-34 with 16:30 left when they went on a 9-0 run, capped by four points from back-to-back turnovers leading to easy layups.

Key Stats: Oklahoma State committed two technical fouls during the game. Arturo Dean was called for one in the first half after arguing with officials.

Up Next: Cincinnati will take on 12th-ranked Iowa State in the first game of Wednesday’s second round.