A first half that was mostly back and forth was followed by a second half full of Cowboy runs, but it still came down to the wire.

Oklahoma State moved to 3-0 after defeating Southern Illinois 85-78 at home. The Cowboys didn’t make a field goal during the final 4:23 of the game clock, but they had plenty of those big runs late and made the stop or two they needed later to come away with the win.

Oh yeah, and they got to put on some great performances off the bench.

The Cowboys trailed 10-2 after five, thanks to a 1-9 start from the field, but the Cowboys were able to climb back into the game thanks to their length and size. OSU recorded seven steals and scored 15 points off 10 SIU turnovers in the first half. Then the Cowboys got hot to close out the first period, closing the half with six of seven shots from the field for a 38-37 lead at intermission.

Three of those came from Brandon Newman, and he didn’t cool down for the rest of the game.

Quick draw 2⃣ pic.twitter.com/SPOWQahHgl

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 15, 2024

OSU beat SIU by 38 in bench points and 36 of those came from two players. Newman and Abou Ousmane each poured in 18 points off the bench to lead the Cowboys to victory.

Newman went 7-for-9 and made three of his four three-point attempts, while Ousmane made his first seven shots, finishing 8-for-10 and also adding four boards, our assists and two blocks.

Top of the key for threeeeee pic.twitter.com/u0rEG3qcWN

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) November 15, 2024

OSU created some distance with an 11-0 run to take a 49-39 lead. Then the Salukis answered right back with their own run of 10-0, bringing the score to 49. But the Cowboys clawed their way to success.

The last time the Cowboys recorded at least 10 steals in three consecutive games was the 2021-2022 season. They did that in all three games this year. Overall, the Cowboys scored streaks of 11, 10, nine and seven points in the second half, with many of those haymakers fueled by the aforementioned SIU turnover. OSU won the turnover battle 18-7, scoring 30 points on those takeaways.

The Salukis did not go down without a fight. A 10-0 run made it 80-72 with just under two minutes remaining. After Jennings made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 10, SIU’s Davis made a 3. After going up 18 with 4:23 to go, OSU made another field goal and SIU pulled within four points with 24 seconds left on the clock. . But Arturo Dean made a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to give the Pokes some distance, then an SIU turnover sealed the deal.

Next up, the Cowboys have a week off for their first road trip. OSU will take on Florida Atlantic in the opening round of the Charleston Classic next Thursday at 1:30 p.m