Cowboys ride 3-point barrage to win over Eastern Washington in second round of NIT

Mar. 19—Bryce Thompson had just been stopped in his tracks. Gathering his dribble to pull up for one of his patented mid-range jumpers, the defender closed the gap too quickly for his liking.

So he gave it up, faded out to the wing in front of Oklahoma State men's basketball's bench and rapidly clapped his hands twice.

He wanted another crack at it, and a pass from senior guard John-Michael Wright gave him one.

Cash.

"OSU hit some shots," Eastern Washington coach David Riley said. "They're a really good team when they're hitting shots."

That lead-extending, crowd-erupting triple from Thompson was emblematic of what he and the Cowboys were able to do in a 71-60 win over the Eagles in the second round of the NIT on Sunday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Thompson went 8 for 16, including 6 for 11 from deep, and OSU (20-15) strung together one of its most impressive shooting performances of the season. That came on the heels of three-straight stinkers for the Cowboys on the offense end, including a clip of 36.6 percent from the field and 21.1 percent from deep in a first-round win over Youngstown State.

Against the Eagles (23-11), the Cowboys hit 48.1 percent of their shots. More importantly, though — perhaps the thing that helped their season live to see another day — the Pokes made 45.8 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, their third-best mark of the year.

"We haven't shot well consistently, and that's the key. Obviously, there's been some key games that not shooting well has cost us," Cowboys coach Mike Boynton said in the aftermath of the 11-point win. "I think it's just a matter of continuing to believe in the shots you get, and I thought we got good shots today and took 'em and made 'em."

EWU's plan, Riley said, was to make OSU play inside-out. The Eagles knew that the Cowboys' post duo of 7-foot-1 junior Moussa Cisse and 6-foot-9 redshirt junior Tyreek Smith were going to leave their marks on the game.

So, Riley and Co. thought, it'd be best to force the Cowboys to let it fly.

That, of course, didn't work. And the Eagles couldn't stop Smith and Cisse, either.

Smith was crucial toward helping OSU overcome another slow start. The Eagles opened the game on a 5-0 run before Smith scored the Cowboys' first points nearly three minutes in. Then Thompson got on the board with his first 3-pointer, and Smith followed that with an emphatic one-handed dunk a few possessions later.

That sequence seemingly jumpstarted what was another productive outing for the native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Four days after dropping the first double-double of his career, he did it again with 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

"I'm having a lot of fun, man," Smith said. "I'm just having a lot of fun."

The Eagles made it a grind, though. They put OSU on the ropes at two separate points in the game. And, both times, the Cowboys responded with a haymaker.

EWU's Angelo Allegri got a layup to fall with 3 minutes and 32 seconds left in the first half, a bucket that cut OSU's lead to 27-26. Then the Cowboys hit 3-pointers on four of their final seven possessions before the break, including a buzzer-beater from freshman guard Quion Williams that capped a full-court inbounds play that started with five seconds on the clock.

And after the Pokes jumped out to a game-best 15-point lead, the Eagles used the next seven minutes to make OSU's advantage just 6 points with 10:17 to play. Then Wright connected from deep in the corner, and the Cowboys outscored EWU 19-14 down the stretch.

"Obviously, basketball season is a long season. To get to this point where — not only are you still playing, but you're playing in something meaningful and playing for each other — is pretty neat," Boynton said. "I was really proud of our effort this afternoon."

The Cowboys won't have long before they take the court in GIA for one final time this season. In fact, they'll have exactly 51 hours between their latest win and their next opportunity at one.

Top-seeded OSU will host North Texas (28-7) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and Boynton doesn't want his squad to focus on what it did against Eastern Washington. That won't help them moving forward, anyway.

He wants the Cowboys, who've defensively smothered opponents all season long, to anchor down one more time. After all, they held the Eagles, who entered the contest as the seventh-best shooting team in the country, to 38.6 percent from the field and 29 percent from downtown.

If they can't, that'll put the punctuation on their season. If they can, they'll be headed to Las Vegas for the NIT semifinals.

"We have the ability. We've done this against a lot of teams. The best teams we've played throughout the season, we've held them to long periods without scoring," Boynton said. "If we can continue to do that, we'll give ourselves a chance to continue to play."

Follow News Press sports reporter Jon Walker on Twitter @ByJonWalker for updates on Oklahoma State athletics, Stillwater High and more.