Jan. 5—Mike Boynton remembers the alarming feeling that the game had gone awry for his Cowboys. The feeling that OSU’s focus was waning.

Nineteen-point leads can sometimes have that effect.

“Tried to remind our guys, that’s a really good team,” the Cowboy coach said of West Virginia.

Sure enough, Boynton’s alarm was justified. West Virginia made up a 19-point deficit midway through the second half and beat OSU 87-84 Monday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena. The same Mountaineers wiped out all of a 19-point second-half deficit at OU two days earlier, only to lose 75-71.

OSU’s loss was debilitating. The kind of defeat that could be remembered in March if the Cowboys are left out of the NCAA Tournament.

OSU, on NCAA probation and banned from the 2021 NCAAs, hopes that its appeal will be granted or delayed. But such an appeal might be unnecessary. The Cowboys might not qualify anyway.

OSU dropped to 7-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12. Combine the West Virginia debacle with a 77-76 loss to Texas Christian on Dec. 16, a game in which the Horned Frogs scored the final nine points, and OSU is losing prime opportunity to make an NCAA case. TCU was bad. West Virginia was worse.

The Cowboys led 68-49 with 11:15 left in the game. Three minutes later, West Virginia’s deficit was just 69-62. Soon enough, the Mountaineers had caught the Cowboys, and it was only through massive scrambling did OSU have a chance to tie, on Rondell Walker’s desperation 3-point heave a few seconds before the final buzzer.

Some will point to West Virginia’s 26 second-chance points as the OSU downfall. And Mountaineer mammoth Derek Culver indeed was a load, with 22 points and 19 rebounds, seven of them offensive. But the Cowboys are a small team and were playing without injured freshman Matthew Alexander-Moncrieffe, one of OSU’s few legitimate post players.

Starting center Kalib Boone fouled out having played just 14:40. At times, perimeter players Cade Cunningham and Isaac Likekele took turns guarding the massive Culver. The former is tall (6-foot-8) and the latter is stout, but that’s problematic. It’s also something OSU has to live with.

But the Cowboys don’t have to live with sloppy ball control. And that’s why OSU lost.

West Virginia wiped out the Cowboys’ commanding lead because OSU committed five turnovers in a sevenpossession span after taking that 19-point lead. There’s that waning focus of which Boynton spoke. Other factors contributed to the quick turnaround, but ball security — failing to prize a possession — ranks No. 1 on the list.

And that’s not close to acceptable for a team that started three point guards.

“Woulda coulda shoulda,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “Should have won the game. No two ways about it. Played well enough for 32 minutes ... and to be clearly the better team tonight. I hope the one thing our guys take away, you gotta finish. It’s a 40-minute game.”

In some ways, OSU made a 43-minute game. Turnovers and dubious decisions by the Cowboys extended the game for West Virginia.

For example, after Walker’s foul shots gave OSU that 19-point lead, the Cowboys sprang a full-court press. I assume Boynton was going for a knockout blow. Instead, the Mountaineers quickly broke the press and gave Taz Sherman a wide-open 3-pointer. WVU’s deficit had been cut to 16 using up only seven seconds.

Then the turnover spree began. Likekele tried backing into the post with the ball, but it was poked away. OSU’s next possession wasn’t a turnover, but Likekele threw a 40-foot pass to seldom-used freshman Donovan Williams, who missed a wild layup and led to another transition 3-pointer, this time by Miles McBride.

Likekele stepped out of bounds catching a pass in the corner. Then Likekele was called for an offensive foul, fighting for paint positioning. Worst of all, Sherman tapped the ball from Cunningham, who in the scramble for possession picked up his fourth foul.

McBride’s subsequent foul shots made it 68-60 with 8:49 left. West Virginia sliced 11 points off the deficit in less than 3 1/2 minutes.

When a team is down 19 points, it has two mortal enemies. The opponent good enough to get up 19, and the clock. A good team, with a 19-point lead, condenses the game. OSU extended the game.

“Value every possession,” Cunningham said of the lesson learned from Monday night. “Every possession something might happen. We had a couple of lapses. Forty minutes is what it takes to win.”

Cunningham played 31:41, during which OSU outscored WVU by three points. But in the other 8:19, the Mountaineers outscored the Cowboys by six.

Cunningham and Likekele were mostly sensational. Cunningham made 10 of 16 shots, with 25 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Likekele made nine of 14 shots, with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Their total turnovers were on the high side (nine combined) but not scandalous. OSU as a team had just 12 turnovers. But those five turnovers in three minutes were disastrous.

The fifth turnover in the critical spree came when Bryce Williams dribbled into a double team, then made an errant pass that Emmitt Matthews Jr. turned into a breakaway dunk, making the score 69-64 with 7:54 left. Anybody’s ballgame, in just a wisp of time.