Oklahoma State, UCF trying to climb out of bottom of Big 12

Oklahoma State and UCF -- who entered this week tied for 13th place in the Big 12 standings -- open their regular-season series on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla.

The rematch is scheduled for March 5 in Orlando, Fla. That leads up to the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Mo., where both teams appear headed for one of the four first-round games on March 11.

UCF (13-12, 4-10 Big 12) is mired in a six-game skid that included a double-digit setback to conference cellar-dweller Colorado on Saturday. Oklahoma State (12-13, 4-10) dropped below .500 for the first time this season following Saturday's 93-55 blowout loss to then-No. 12 Texas Tech.

UCF's Keyshawn Hall continues to lead the Big 12 in scoring during conference play at 21.1 points per game. But after hitting 14 triples in a four-point loss at Kansas on Jan. 28, the Knights shot just 28.2 percent (33 of 117) as a team from beyond the arc over the next five games.

Moreover, UCF has not outscored an opponent in the second half during its six-game slide. Colorado followed suit with a 38-27 scoring edge after halftime to win 76-63 on Saturday.

"To start the second half, I thought for us, I thought we got some pretty good shots," UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. "We didn't hit them and that helped (the Buffaloes') run too, so they had some good shots in the second half, and they were able to knock them down. I thought we had some pretty good looks, and we didn't knock them down, and that's part of basketball."

Three days after a buzzer-beating loss at TCU, Oklahoma State struggled badly against Texas Tech for the Cowboys' largest margin of defeat since 2019, when they lost by 39 at Kansas State.

Marchelus Avery scored a team-high 13 points as Oklahoma State fell to 9-3 at home.

"We're better than that," Cowboys coach Steve Lutz said. "We've been playing better than that, and for whatever reason (Saturday), we did not compete at the level that we need to compete at in this league in order to be successful."

Avery scores 12.2 points per game, Abou Ousmane adds 11.8 and Bryce Thompson averages 11.6 for the Cowboys.

--Field Level Media