STILLWATER — Each morning when Parsa Fallah wakes up, he asks himself the same question.
Is it a game day or a practice day?
“I hate practices, I’m not gonna lie,” said Fallah, Oklahoma State’s 6-foot-10 senior forward. “I wake up every morning and if I know I got practice, it’s hard.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“But as soon as we’re done with practice, I know I got better. So it’s a good thing. And we are winning so it’s obviously working. Coach (Steve Lutz) is a great coach.”
Fallah had 24 points, including some clutch late buckets that carried the Cowboys to a 93-83 win over Sam Houston on Tuesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
OSU guard Anthony Roy added 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists as the Pokes improved to 8-0 for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
Three of the last four wins have been decided by 10 points or less, and Lutz has enjoyed seeing his team’s response late in tight games.
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Dec 2, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys center Parsa Fallah (22) controls the ball during the first half against the Sam Houston Bearkats at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images“They’ve banded together and gotten stops when they needed to,” Lutz said. “When the chips are down, it’s been a different person who’s stepped up.
“The other night, Anthony Roy played really well offensively at Northwestern and hit a bunch of big shots. Tonight, Kanye Clary controlled the game in the second half with his passing, with his driving. And shoot, Lefteris (Mantzoukas) darn near got every rebound in the last two minutes of the game when it mattered.”
In his second season, Lutz used the transfer portal to boost his team’s offensive weaponry, and it seems to have worked. OSU has scored at least 85 points in every game and is averaging 92.3 per game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut with that, Lutz has had to work on drilling his defensive principles home with a mostly new roster
“We’ve got a long ways to go to be successful in the Big 12 on the defensive end,” Lutz said. “We start thinking we’re gonna score the ball too easily, and it’s not gonna win you games in the Big 12. It’s just not.
“We scored 93 points. I get it. But Kelvin Sampson (at Houston), TJ Otzelberger (at Iowa State), they ain’t gonna let us score 93 points. So we gotta prepare to win in the league that matters. I’m happy that we won this game, but we gotta prepare to win in the Big 12, and tonight, the first-half defense wasn’t good enough.”
The Cowboys trailed 44-37 at halftime, but they flipped the score with a 10-0 run a few minutes into the second half. It started with five straight points from Fallah and ended with a fastbreak 3-pointer from Clary with 14:49 to play.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOSU never trailed from there, with Roy scoring 12 of his 20 in the final stretch.
Dec 2, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Anthony Roy (9) drives to the basket around Sam Houston Bearkats forward Jaxson Ford (10) during the first half at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn ImagesRoy missed the first three games of the season with an injury, but with Tuesday’s performance, he upped his scoring average to 15.2 per game, second-highest on the team behind Vyctorius Miller.
“I feel good and comfortable taking shots,” Roy said. “My teammates have a lot of trust in me. I feel good out there.
“I don’t think we’re playing our best right now, but we’re learning how to play together more, and that’s what non-conference games are all about.”
Miller exited early with an ankle injury and Lutz had no update on the shooting guard’s status after the game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat trimmed into OSU’s depth, with forward Robert Jennings II also sidelined. Freshman Ryan Crotty, who started four games early in the season, did not play, and Christian Coleman played just two minutes, despite entering the night averaging nearly 21 a game.
With a tighter rotation than usual, Fallah played a season-high 33 minutes, but that’s where those hard practices paid off.
“Coach Lutz knows what he’s doing,” Fallah said. “We run a lot. I think our practices is harder than our games sometimes, so that’s the reason we’re prepared for the games.”
Dec 2, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Anthony Roy (9) shoots the ball over Sam Houston Bearkats guard Po'Boigh King (35) during the second half at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn ImagesScott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU basketball boosted by depth, clutch play as Cowboys move to 8-0
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