Mistakes cost Braves as Oklahoma State wins 68-57

57	68

Credit Jim Les' teams for one thing: they never quit. Unfortunately, that alone doesn't translate into victories.

Oklahoma State (5-0) took a 20-point lead in the second half and withstood a Bradley (3-2) run to secure a 68-57 victory. Sophomore forward Taylor Brown posted another career-high of 21 points in the losing effort.

The Braves had a promising first four minutes of the game, leading Oklahoma State 9-5. But the Cowboys answered with a 17-5 run and weren't pushed too hard until the last ten minutes of the game.

The frustrating takeaway from this effort was that even though Bradley didn't do anything really poorly tonight (other than shoot free throws), the team didn't flourish in any area either.

The Braves played okay defensively, but as the shot clock ran down, Oklahoma State secured too many second chances. Both teams turned the ball over 15 times, but it was a few costly Bradley turnovers that prevented any opportunity to make a complete comeback.

The deficit was cut to nine (57-48) with 5:27 left on a sequence when Brown would not be denied on the interior and eventually got to the line and made two free throws. But the next six possessions ended all hope: Will Egolf hits 1-of-2 free throws, Egolf commits a moving screen, Egolf makes a bad pass for a turnover, Andrew Warren steps out of bounds, and Warren hits 1-of-2 free throws.

In summary, there were three turnovers, no shots attempted and just 2-of-4 free throws made. The Cowboys pushed the lead back to 13 points and the game was basically out of reach.

Warren's performance was one of the worst of his career, making only 1-of-8 from the floor (four points) and committing five turnovers. If the Braves are going to be successful this season, he must play a whole lot better than he did tonight.

But don't lay the blame just on Warren. Senior guard Chris Roberts played inspired defense on OSU star James Anderson. He also missed all four of his attempts from the floor and made just 5-of-10 from the free-throw line.

For the game, Bradley only made 14-of-24 free-throw attempts (58.3 percent).

And for all the Braves' ineptitude, Oklahoma State didn't really have that great of a game either. The Cowboys got completely out of their offense during the Bradley run, settling for contested 3-pointers and poor jump shots.

Junior guard Sam Maniscalco had an encouraging game with eight points and three rebounds. He looked less tentative than in previous games and showed no signs of discomfort after his awkward fall against Presbyterian.

Moving ahead

Luckily for Bradley, it can quickly forget about the subpar performance against Oklahoma State. The Braves will play the loser of Utah-Illinois tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. This trip can still be successful with a win against either of these teams tomorrow.