Last season, the men’s basketball team beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater 60-51. Saturday night against the Cowboys was different. 

The Shockers started from behind and stayed there for the remainder of the game. OSU beat the Shockers 59-49 at Wichita State’s annual game at Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita. 

OSU started off the game on a 10-0 run.  Senior point guard Craig Porter Jr. said it was definitely difficult being down at the beginning of the game.

“We were just right there, and it was one or two things,” Porter said. “Not being in the right spot or not paying attention or just something little. The littlest thing … it can end it like that.”

OSU shot 39.6% from the field and 39.1% from the 3-point line. The Shockers shot 36.5% from the field. However, the largest margin on the stat sheet compared to OSU was their lowest season average of 04.8% percent from the 3-point line. 

Head coach Isaac Brown said his team needs to improve at making wide open and tough shots. 

“I think the defense is way ahead of the offense right now,” Brown said. “I think offensively it’s not clicking like we need to. We gotta have better screening. We gotta have better ball movement.” 

On defense, the Shockers held OSU to one field goal in the last 10 minutes of the game. Porter said they didn’t try anything special on defense to minimize OSU’s scoring. 

“Really just playing with more effort,” Porter said. “The first half, we didn’t get off to a good start.”

Sophomore guard Jaron Pierre Jr. leads the team in 3-pointers this season with 16. Against the Cowboys, Pierre was 1-6 from the 3-point line and hit the teams lone 3-pointer of the game. 

“There’s nothing wrong with shooting bad one night,” Pierre said. “We got more games left.” 

The men’s team has one more game on their regular season non-conference schedule before beginning play in the American Athletic Conference. 

On Dec. 22, they will play Texas Southern in Charles Koch Arena at 7 p.m. Their conference opener is on Dec. 28 at 6 p.m. at Central Florida.