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Cade Cunningham scored 23 points and made seven of his eight free throws (several of them in crunch time) to lead Oklahoma State past No. 2 Baylor in the teams’ semifinal tilt in the Big 12 Tournament.
Cade looked like the Big 12’s Player of the Year against the league’s regular season champs. The Cowboys move on to the Big 12 Tournament Championship for the first time since 2005.
Coming into Friday’s matchups, we (I) made a big deal about the Cowboys playing under control to cut down on their turnovers. But Mike Boynton was more concerned with outrunning the Bears than slowing things down. What do I know?
The Cowboys got out in transition early and often, forcing 12 Baylor turnovers in the first half, that lead to six points. The Cowboys held a 15-2 edge in fast break points at the break and finished owning the category 17-4.
Boynton has been successful at switching his defensive schemes all season but this was a master class against the Bears. The result was the Cowboys holding college basketball’s best 3-point shooting team to its second-worst perimeter shooting performance of the season and the Cowboys getting out in transition and running circles around (and past) the Bears for much of the night.
Avery Anderson showed off his trademark speed to put a nice cap on the first half and give OSU the 35-30 lead.
The Bears had only trailed at halftime four times this season coming in and the five-point lead by the Cowboys tied the Bears biggest deficit heading into the second.
Mike Boynton wanted more.
I wish it was faster.
But the Bears were able to slow things down in the second half, at least somewhat, using their size to attack the boards and to get to the line.
Baylor tied the game at 43 at the 15:24 mark and the Cowboys weren’t able to take it back for 11 minutes of game time.
Cade Cunningham’s stepback 3-pointer knotted things up at 50-all, but MaCio Teague scored five-straight of his own to kickstart a 10-2 Baylor run, giving the Bears a 60-52 lead with 7:34 left.
But big-time players make big-time plays. Baylor has a handful of stars in its back court, but OSU has a superstar.
Cade was 2-for-7 from 3 before he stepped into this beauty.
And then he did it again to make it 66-65 with 4:24 left, giving the Cowboys their first lead in 11 minutes.
The it was a back-and-forth slugfest the rest of the way. Kalib Boone showed some nifty footwork in the post and then made two clutch free throws.
Avery Anderson’s and-one put the Cowboys up 73-72 with two minutes to go. Then Cade found Rondel Walker on a cut to the basket and his and-one put the Pokes up 76-72 with a minute and a half left.
Cade posted up MaCio Teague with 44 seconds left and drew a foul. Cade Clutch knocked both free throws down to push the Pokes’ lead to six with 43 seconds left.
Over the last 43 seconds Cade went 5-of-6 from the line to ice the game like he’s down so many times.
Four Cowboys scored in double digits. Cade had his 25, eight rebounds and five assists. Avery Anderson scored 20 on 13 shot attempts and grabbed five boards, while Rondel Walker and Kalib Boone chipped in 11 and 10 respectively.
Despite the frantic pace the Cowboys played with, they committed just 13 turnovers, their lowest mark in the last seven games.
Next Up
The Cowboys will face off against Texas for the Big 12 Tournament crown Saturday at 5 p.m.
The post Instacap: Oklahoma State Tops Baylor 83-74, Headed to Big 12 Title Game appeared first on Pistols Firing.
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