Dec. 2—STILLWATER — Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton doesn’t want to overreact.

Wednesday’s 60-51 loss to Wichita State hurts, though. And not just because it was another confounding defeat eight games into the season.

Boynton’s Cowboys were outwilled by the Shockers.

“It’s obviously hurtful to lose but it’s more hurtful to lose when you lose to your own identity,” Boynton said. “I’ve tried to build this program on toughness and resiliency and tonight it was — without the benefit of looking at the film — obviously we did a lot of things wrong physically, but I think their will was a little greater than ours tonight.”

And that’s a problem Boynton wants to stop in its tracks.

“That hasn’t been us,” Boynton said. “But that was us today. It needs to be addressed and guys have to own what happened tonight. There’s no two ways about it.”

So what exactly happened?

The Cowboys (6-2) had too many self-inflicted wounds. They committed 21 turnovers. They shot just 9 of 19 from the free-throw line.

And in the final 2 minutes and 53 seconds, they went scoreless. Wichita State closed on an 8-0 run as the Cowboys turned the ball over three times and missed seven shots.

OSU was simply trying to do too much.

“Sometimes you get guys pressing to make plays while they’re out there,” Boynton said, “and I think that happened tonight.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Out of the zone again

Wichita State coach Isaac Brown watched the film of OSU’s loss to Oakland, when the zone defense first befuddled the Cowboys.

He then watched five other games — all OSU wins — and noticed little zone defense.

“It kept going through my head, ‘There’s no way I’m going to sit here and play these guys man-to-man all night,’” Brown said.

The Shockers did not play man-to-man defense all night. They mixed it up, leaning heavily on a zone while also mixing in other looks.

It was the zone that was most troubling for the Cowboys.

The offense stagnated, failing to hold 10-0 runs to start the game and second half. Shots didn’t fall. Bad decisions followed.

Boynton said he needs to find the right mix of players to help solve the zone issues. But the rotations shortened with the bench struggling.

Only five substitutes played — with Kalib Boone the lone player to have a positive in plus-minus — and they combined to score just 12 points.

“We didn’t really have all the options available to us that we normally do,” Boynton said.

That led to the Cowboys trying to do too much.

For example, several turnovers were on long, cross-court pass attempts.

“Guys try to do too much,” Boynton said. “But also we tried too hard tonight to force the tempo and a couple of our turnovers were just reckless trying to play faster than we needed to at the time.”

But breaking the zone is ultimately up to the players.

Brown said OSU has the tools to solve their issues. Boynton believes that, too.

“Coach B and them, they put together a great gameplan for zones,” OSU senior Isaac Likekele said. “It’s down to us to execute. It works.

“We’re not utilizing what we need to get the ball to the spots we want to. We gotta be basketball players and just be better, because they got us in the right positions.”

Mr. Anderson’s night

OSU guard Avery Anderson III’s slow offensive start finally found a bright spot. He looked more like the scorer he was last season.

But it wasn’t perfect.

Anderson scored a seasonhigh 17 points. He hit a wideopen 3 from the corner to open the game that boosted his confidence. He later hit a deep 3 from the OSU logo.

“I just wanted to keep it going,” Anderson said.

There were just six turnovers from Anderson, including five in the second half.

On a night where little things matter, those stand out, even when an offensive funk appears to end.

“He scored,” Boynton said. “He’s a scorer. He had six turnovers too, though. If you’re going to be a guy that handles the ball that much — I’m curious to go back and see how many of his turnovers led to points, because you kind of offset some of your scoring if you’re also turning the ball over.

“I’m proud he looked confident out there trying to score, but there is a balance to this thing.”

However, Anderson’s turnovers led to just one Shockers point on the following possession.

Ice freezes Etienne, but Council too hot

Likekele’s focus was Wichita State star Tyson Etienne, who entered the game averaging nearly 19 points per game.

There is no way Etienne forgets Likekele, either.

Likekele face-guarded him each time they were on the floor together, at one point even preventing him from getting the ball and upsetting Wichita State coach Isaac Brown to the point he pulled Etienne aside and demonstrated a few options to try the next time.

Likekele still never let up.

Etienne scored just five points and made 2 of 7 shots.

“It was definitely a good challenge,” Likekele said. “That pretty much was my main focus for the night.”

But even the Shockers overcame that.

Ricky Council IV scored 17 points, making 3 of 3 3-pointers. He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter.

That forced Likekele to make a switch late in the game. But by then, there was no slowing down Council, who played 29 minutes off the bench.

Council hit a pull-up jumper over Likekele, who defended well, for a 54-51 lead with 1:54 remaining. After a Bryce Thompson miss, Council hit a layup with a great move to get past Likekele.

“He’s a high talent,” Likekele said. “He did good tonight.”