The Queens Royals averaged 99.5 points per game entering Stillwater Friday night. The Cowboys held their visiting opponents to 68 points, their best defensive performance yet this season.
The Cowboys locked down Queens Guard Nasir Mann to just 11 points, who was averaging 23.5 points per game coming into Friday.
“I think they have really good one-on-one defenders,” Queens Head Coach Grant Leonard said of the Oklahoma State defense. “Credit to Oklahoma State for how they guarded him [Mann] and Jordan Waterford. I thought they did a really nice job on both of them because both of them all season, even in the preseason when we played another high major team, they were able to get by their primary defender and tonight they weren’t able to.”
Andrija Grbovic, who set a career record Friday night with 17 points scored on offense, spoke on his team’s overall defensive performance.
“We knew that they were going to try to play really fast in transitions,” Grbovic said.
“So we tried to build the walls and be in the gap and help each other.”
Ryan Crotty, who posted four defensive rebounds, said, “We forced them into tough shots, so I think we were guarding one-on-one really well, and when you do that, we’re in a good position to rebound.”
Crotty also put up 10 points total in 10:17 of playtime Friday night. “We work on that every day, about five, six times in practice, so we were able to grab the ball tonight.”
Cowboy Head Coach Steve Lutz had stressed second-half defensive improvement after being outscored in the second half of the victory against Incarnate Word 43-37. The Cowboys significantly improved on those numbers, outscoring the Royals 66-37 in the second half of play.
“I thought that we did a good job of coming out with basically the same intensity that we did in the first half,” Lutz said. “The defense continued to play at a high level, and that’s good to see.
“I thought our guys did a much better job of having the right mindset in the second half. “When our effort is good, and when we’re aggressive, and we have pressure on the ball, and we’re getting deflections and those sorts of things, we have a chance to be a good basketball team on that end of the floor.”
The Cowboys next play on the road against Texas A&M, Nov. 12.
“I’m excited,” Lutz said. “If you win that game on the road, it’s going to help your opportunities come March.”