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STILLWATER — The Cowboys won’t go winless through a conference season.
Oklahoma State beat West Virginia 70-66 on Saturday in Gallagher-Iba Arena to secure the Pokes’ first league win. Here are five thoughts from a great game.
At long last, the Cowboys have won a Big 12 game.
There were plenty of spots where this game looked as if it was going to take a turn for the worse for OSU like all of the others, but the Cowboys just kept coming back.
West Virginia went on a 9-0 run midway through the second half to take a 50-46 lead. Recent games might’ve suggested that was the beginning of the end for the Cowboys, but they fought back with a run to tie it at 50.
Then Kerr Kriisa (who was Lubbock Lindy levels of on fire) hit back-to-back 3s to give the Mountaineers a six-point lead with about seven minutes to play. But the Cowboys again responded. The battle continued into clutch time, which we’ll get to, but every time the Cowboys got popped, they fired a return shot.
The team is still 1-6 in the Big 12, so I’m not going to make too big a deal about anything. But I will say it says a lot about the group that the Cowboys just keep fighting despite this season seeming doomed for outsiders since the Cowboys lost to Abilene Christian to start the year.
“It sure feels good to win,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “But the thing I’m most proud of, or really two things: one of the kids, who just keep showing up. The thing that I tell them is it’s hard to beat somebody who keeps showing up. It really is because the mindset is that at some point, the other person is not gonna show up. I’m proud of our kids for continuing to do the things that we’ve asked them to do even though they haven’t seen what they saw today, the fruits of that labor in a way that everybody can recognize as being a win.”
Only a freshman, Brandon Garrison did it all to lead his team to its first Big 12 win.
Garrison had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block against West Virginia.
Even more impressive, the 6-foot-10 center with long arms went 8-for-10 from the foul line, including going 4-for-4 from the stripe in the final 1:30 of the game. He went to the line with 1:27 to play down 64-62 and got them both to tie it up. Then he returned to the stripe with 27 seconds to play with a 67-66 lead and hit two more to force the Mountaineers into a 3-point attempt on their ensuing possession, which they airballed.
He was also a team-best plus-nine in plus/minus, meaning the Cowboys were nine points better than the Mountaineers with Garrison on the floor.
Garrison has spent the past few games in foul trouble, playing only 11 minutes against TCU and 16 minutes against Kansas State. It was particularly paramount Saturday that he stayed out of foul trouble, as the Pokes were without Mike Marsh because of illness. So that left Garrison as the only true center on the roster. He didn’t have a single foul in his 35 minutes on the floor.
Garrison’s stat line already suggests the Cowboys worked the ball inside more, but it was evident even when plays weren’t starting with a Garrison low-post touch.
The Cowboys made it a point to get paint touches, and for the first time in Big 12 play, OSU outscored its opponent in the paint. The Pokes had 26 paint points to West Virginia’s 22.
The offense seemed at its best Saturday when Garrison would get the ball in the low post and could hit a slasher, rip a cross-court pass for an open 3 or just take it to whichever Mountaineer was guarding him. But the Cowboys also had success driving the baseline. That forced WVU to help off and OSU caught the Mountaineers in rotation quite a few times.
Even when those paint touches resulted in 3-point shots, it just felt more likely those shots were going to go in as opposed to 3-point attempts that stayed on the perimeter all possession.
The final five minutes of games have been like the boogeyman for OSU basketball as of late, but not Saturday.
In their past two games, OSU was just a combined 1-for-10 from the field in the final five minutes. Their opponents (Kansas State and TCU), meanwhile, were 7-for-10 from the field. Well, Saturday, OSU was 3-for-6 (50%) from the field while holding WVU to 1-for-9 (11%). OSU also forced its way to the foul line eight times in the final five minutes and made seven of those shots.
OSU’s three made field goals in that stretch were all from 3. The first was John-Michael Wright hitting a triple off an Eric Dailey Jr. offensive rebound. Wright’s bucket cut WVU’s lead to 61-59 with 4:04 to play.
Then after the Mountaineers missed a 3, Garrison ripped down a board and pushed to up to Dailey, who threw a cross-court pass to Thompson on a fast break. Thompson didn’t have his best offensive outing and was 1-for-8 from the field when he caught Dailey’s pass, but confident as ever, Thompson pulled of from the corner and splashed down a 3 to give OSU a 62-61 lead with 3:24 to play.
After a bit of back and forth, the Cowboys were down 66-64 with a minute to play when Javon Small hit probably the toughest 3 of the bunch to give the Cowboys a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“Today we kinda got over the hurdle,” Boynton said. “We can’t assume that it’s automatic now. The only thing that is automatic is age. I tell them all the time age is automatic, but growth is intentional. We have to grow from this the same way we grew from the last few losses.”
Earlier this week, Boynton called the Remember the Ten game the most important of the season because of its real-life impact on those involved.
He said even in the Cade Cunningham season, where OSU played in the conference tournament final and in the NCAA Tournament, that the Cowboys’ Remember the Ten win against Oklahoma was the most important.
Well, Boynton is now 6-1 in Remember the Ten games after Saturday’s win. His only loss in the game was to No. 3 Kansas in 2020. Other than that, he has beaten OU twice during R10 day, including the No. 4, Trae Young-led Sooners in 2018. Boynton’s Cowboys also beat South Carolina, Arkansas and Ole Miss — all part of the now-defunct Big 12-SEC Challenge.
“What I focused on was A, making sure our guys knew what this was about,” Boynton said. “And then making sure that we were also prepared to play against somebody today.
“… I tried to really focus on making sure that we didn’t get so wrapped up in the emotion of the game that we also didn’t prepare well. So there was a balance in doing both of those things.”
The Cowboys haven’t won enough during Boynton’s tenure, I’m not here to argue that. But, the man is a wizard in important games. He’s 6-1 in Remember the Ten games and 9-5 against the Sooners.
Even outside of his go-ahead 3 with less than a minute to play, Javon Small had him self a day.
A transfer point guard from East Carolina, Small had a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double, and he flirted with a triple double with his seven assists. It has to feel extra vindicating for Small because he missed a couple of shots late in OSU’s close losses, but Saturday, he was nails.
His feel for the game is so good — when to speed up, when to slow down. He knows how it will affect a defense if he takes a hard step or two one way. At 6-foot-3, he is also an incredible rebounder. He is good at anticipating where a miss is going to bounce off to. He had four rebounds in the final five minutes when his team needed them. Just winning play after winning play.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — West Virginians who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits can once again use them to purchase soda after a federal judge blocked the state’s restriction, though the ruling could still face an appeal.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture exceeded its authority and failed to follow required public notice procedures before approving waivers allowing five states, including West Virginia, to restrict certain SNAP purchases. The ruling vacates those waivers, effectively restoring previous purchasing rules unless a higher court intervenes.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the state is consulting with the U.S. Department of Justice and the other states involved in the lawsuit before deciding whether to appeal the decision.
“We do think it’s lawful,” Morrisey said. “We think that the way that SNAP was designed, it’s trying to focus on nutrition, and I think our decisions are consistent with that. We want nutritious foods for people.”
Morrisey said discussions are ongoing about the state’s legal strategy.
“We’re conferring with the other states. We’re conferring with the Department of Justice on that, and we’re going to be developing our litigation plan,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice on behalf of plaintiffs challenging the USDA’s approval of the restrictions.
Katherine Deabler-Meadows, an attorney with NCLEJ, said the ruling provides immediate relief for SNAP recipients and retailers.
“For our clients it means a lot that they’re going to be able to buy the food products that they need to buy to manage their lives and their health conditions,” she said.
Deabler-Meadows said the restrictions created confusion for grocery stores and made it more difficult for recipients to use their benefits.
“Legally, this is very clear,” she said. “The district court vacated the five waivers. USDA’s approval of those restrictions has been vacated. Legally, people should be able to just walk in and use their SNAP benefits the exact same way they could before the restrictions went into effect.”
Supporters of the restrictions argued they would encourage healthier food choices. However, Deabler-Meadows said the limits placed an unnecessary burden on families relying on SNAP benefits.
“It might seem like a small thing to not be able to drink a soda,” she said. “If your day is that long and you have that many things to juggle, sometimes that is something that you need in order to meet all of those responsibilities.”
Although the restriction has been struck down, it may take time for retailers across West Virginia to update their systems. The federal government may also appeal the ruling, but unless a court issues a stay, attorneys say the restrictions are no longer legally in effect.
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They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
At this point, Paul Hardesty, President of the West Virginia Board of Education, must be on the precipice of losing his mind. During a recent call with reporters, Hardesty again emphasized the dire financial outlook for the state’s public schools. Enrollment continues to decline, and more school closures and consolidations may be coming next year.
It’s not the first time Hardesty has sounded the alarm.
Hardesty has repeatedly pointed out that public schools are withering under the current school-aid formula and burdensome regulations.
Some state lawmakers have received the message but during the 2026 60-day legislative session, while there was more discussion that legislative action is needed to address growing financial strains, ultimately, there was not enough political will for state lawmakers to take any action.
Senator Amy Nicole Grady, R-Mason, chairs the Senate Education Committee and is a public school teacher. She has spent the last three years trying to educate her fellow legislators about the frustrations teachers and school officials deal with on a daily basis.
“We know it’s nothing new. It’s something we have discussed for at least three years now, knowing that we need to move forward and change that formula in some way. But how we change it, that’s the challenge,” Grady said during an appearance on Metronews Talkline.
Grady recognizes the “how” is the major stumbling block for legislators who must make difficult decisions and must then face unhappy constituents.
“It’s very, very difficult, and this is something that’s big that really takes a lot of thinking, and it can require a lot of hard, difficult decisions, and you also have that model of self-preservation.
“A lot of people are thinking, this is hard for me to make this decision. I don’t want to make this decision because it could mean my seat. But when it’s the right thing, it’s the right thing regardless.”
House Education Committee Chairman Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, has also been on the front line trying to build a case for legislators to support major changes. Statler has repeatedly emphasized the gap in special education funding, where costs continue to outpace revenues.
The number of special education students continues to grow, now making up nearly 21 percent of the student population.
It is not only the legislature that has not found the political fortitude to address public education. It has not been a priority for the executive branch either.
Gov. Morrisey focused his political capital on accelerating the elimination of the personal income tax and preventing changes to the Hope Scholarship.
You can’t help but question whether the lack of action is due to a lack of political will or indifference to public schools’ failure. There’s no doubt that outside interest groups, many of which have supported legislative campaigns, have indicated a preference for alternative education choices.
Either way, if lawmakers continue to ignore the tidal wave of financial failures in the public education system, they will have abdicated their constitutional duty to provide West Virginia students with a “free and efficient” education system.
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