Feb. 25—Some of it was a blur to Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton. Not all of it, though.

Sifting through what led to the Cowboys’ 73-68 loss to No. 14 Kansas State on Saturday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena, Boynton couldn’t remember the sequence the Wildcats used to go ahead. He couldn’t remember exactly how his team responded on the offensive end of the floor, either.

But he could recall three different plays that helped the Wildcats overcome a second-half deficit to hand the Pokes their fourth-straight loss.

“These games usually come down to the last four minutes, and the team that executes best — gets the best shots, is connected defensively, finishes plays with rebounds, makes their free throws — usually wins,” Boynton said. “We didn’t do any of those things well enough today to beat a good team here.”

Junior guard Bryce Thompson had just made a layup to put the Cowboys (16-13, 7-9 Big 12) ahead at 53-45 with 12 minutes and 8 seconds remaining in the second half. It was — and would be — their largest lead of the day.

It was an advantage OSU swiped away from K-State (22-7, 10-6 Big 12) in the latter moments of the first half, and an advantage OSU had only built on out of the break. The Cowboys used an 11-4 run over the final four minutes of the first half to take a lead into the intermission, and that was the spark that they carried through the first 10 minutes of the second.

But Thompson’s drive to the lane and finish at the rim, coupled with Kansas State guard Ishmael Massoud’s layup 40 seconds later, was the moment the Cowboys started to squander the very opportunities they had seized up to that point.

“I would just say we made errors down the stretch,” said Cowboys senior forward Kalib Boone, who was 7-for-11 with 18 points and three rebounds. “I feel like we competed the whole time, and we really did things that we normally do. But yeah, I just feel like that’s what it is: We just made mental errors.”

Four minutes after getting out to the game’s largest lead, the Cowboys went on a scoring drought that allowed the Wildcats to tie the game at 57-57. Then two of the three plays that stuck with Boynton occurred on back-to-back possessions.

OSU senior guard John-Michael Wright buried a triple from the top of the key to put the Pokes back in front by a single point with a little more than six minutes to play. Kansas State answered with a 3-pointer of their own from forward Keyontae Johnson, who was left open after a miscommunication in the Cowboys’ defense.

And it happened again the next time down the floor, too, in the exact same fashion. Another miscue on a pick-androll gave Massoud a free look at the basket from deep, and he drained it. Within 73 seconds, the Cowboys regained the lead they spent 15:39 of the game with and watched the ‘Cats take it back one final time.

“Just not enough — in really, really crunch time — to ultimately overcome a team that has the ability to make you pay when you’re not as connected and when you have a breakdown,” Boynton said.

The third came another four minutes later, right after Boone missed the backend of a pair of free throws to bring make K-State’s lead 67-64 with 2:30 to play.

For the first time since holding an 8-point lead, the Cowboys had figured it out on defense. They had switched every ball screen, eliminated every passing lane and effectively stymied the Wildcats — until the Pokes forced the ball out of bounds with two seconds left on the shot clock.

KSU guard Desi Sills, a junior who’s 6-foot-2, made his way under the basket and put a layup off the glass and in to make it a two-possession advantage, one that the Wildcats clung to until the final buzzer.

“You just make the guy go away from the basket. It’s a real basic principle,” Boynton said. “You can’t get back-cut there and give up a layup. If he throws out to 3, and you challenge it and he throws it in, you live with it. But that didn’t happen, obviously.”

After entering the matchup as one of the final teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, the Cowboys’ latest loss in a four-game skid pushed them to the edge.

Lunardi had OSU as the last team to take part in March Madness. The margin of error is growing thinner and thinner for the Pokes with only two games remaining in the regular season. But playing in the toughest conference in college basketball means each of those opportunities is a big one.

The first presents itself as No. 9 Baylor at 8 p.m. Monday in Gallagher-Iba Arena, OSU’s final home game of the year. The Bears handed the Cowboys what was then their largest loss of the season when the two met Jan. 14 in Waco, Texas.

Then, the Cowboys bounced back by winning six of the next seven games. Being able to respond now — with their backs against the wall less than two weeks away from the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri — would give them a win that would skyrocket to the top of their resume for Selection Sunday.

“There’s no magic bullet, all right? There’s no special potion we’re gonna rub on in the next 48 hours to get ready for another really good team,” Boynton said. “If you wanna accomplish the goals to be relevant after next week, then you’ve gotta find a way to get the job done.”