17 days ago, the Oklahoma State Cowboys had just lost on the road to the Kansas State Wildcats. That loss moved Oklahoma State to 3-4 in the Big 12 Conference and had many people crossing the Cowboys off of their projected NCAA Brackets. The Cowboys were in a big hole with a very tough stretch of games upcoming including a home-and-home with Baylor, a road game at Texas, and home games against Oklahoma and Conference leading Kansas.

After Monday night’s 74-65 win over the Baylor Bears, Oklahoma State finished that tough stretch of games with a 4-1 record to boost them to fifth place in the conference at 7-5. In a weird statistic, none of the six players who came off the bench for Oklahoma State scored, all 74 points came from the starting five including four in double figures.

Le’Bryan Nash led the Cowboys with 22 points in 37 minutes played. It extended his streak of games scoring in double figures to 23 games. The last time Nash scored under ten points was in the NCAA Tournament loss to Gonzaga last season, he was held to six. Guards Anthony Hickey Jr, Phil Forte III, and Jeff Newberry combined for 46 points on 14-of-30 shooting, which included a 9-of-19 mark from beyond the arc.

Both teams shot above 46% from the floor but Oklahoma State tripled Baylor’s three-pointer output at nine to three. That really was the difference in the game.

On the Baylor side, the loss is a big one which drops them to sixth in the conference with a huge road game at Kansas on Saturday. A loss on Saturday coupled with other results could see Baylor drop as far as eighth by the time they travel to Lubbock next Tuesday. A Top-6 seed will make sure they avoid the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.

Junior forward Rico Gathers played another phenomenal game finishing with 16 points and 16 rebounds. The double-double machine recorded his 13th of the season and third consecutive double-double. Gathers is in a tight battle with Kendall Gray from Delaware State for the national lead in rebounds. Gray is averaging 12.9 per game while Gathers is on his tail at 12.5.

Taurean Price added 20 points off the bench for the Bears who saw their four guards combine for just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting.

Both teams hit the road on Saturday for their next conference games. Oklahoma State travels to Fort Worth to take on the TCU Horned Frogs. Baylor heads north to square off with the Kansas Jayhawks in another very important game for the Bears.