Oklahoma State found out the hard way that it has a roster full of ball handlers.
In an 87-63 home win Sunday against Texas A&M, Kanye Clary suffered an apparent arm injury and played only seven minutes. The Oklahoma State depth could be tested again when the team meets Prairie View A&M on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla.
The Cowboys already passed the first test.
Because Clary was being counted on as a primary ball handler, the Cowboys (2-0) turned to a point-guard-by-committee approach. Coach Steve Lutz said he was impressed with the collective ball-handling effort his team made against the Aggies.
“We learned that Isaiah Coleman, Vyctorius Miller, Ryan Crotty, Lefteris (Mantzoukas) and Christian (Coleman) … all those guys stepped up when Kanye went down,” Lutz said. “They stepped up and helped with ball-handling responsibilities, and I thought that was really impressive.”
Lutz did not have an update on Clary’s status but said Anthony Roy is day-to-day as he recovers from a groin injury. The senior guard has yet to play this season.
While the Cowboys don’t plan to press or extend their defense too much this year, instead emphasizing offense, they did force the Aggies into 15 turnovers that led to 27 points. Christian Coleman tallied 16 points to lead five Oklahoma State players who scored in double digits.
Prairie View A&M (2-1) is led in scoring by UTSA transfer Tai’Reon Joseph, who is averaging 25 points per game. He and Cory Wells each scored 15 points in a 105-62 loss at Wichita State on Saturday but were only a combined 8 of 28 from the field. Wells added nine rebounds.
The Panthers had four players in double figures, including Marcel Bryant (13) and Doug Young (12) despite shooting just 32.2% for the game.
The immediate schedule doesn’t get easier for the Panthers, who play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. After Oklahoma State, they will play Missouri and then take more than a month off from power-conference competition. They have games at LSU and Texas A&M during the December holiday weeks.
Prairie View A&M is the fifth school in five seasons for Joseph. Coach Byron Smith knew what he was getting when he brought him in as a transfer.
“Tai’Reon was in our league two years ago at Southern,” Smith said. “He’s a very, very good guard.”
Smith averaged 20.5 points in 19 games (16 starts) for Southern in the 2023-24 season.
–Field Level Media
