STILLWATER - Oklahoma State opened its season by putting Incarnate Word away early and never letting the Cardinals breathe.
The Cowboys rolled to a 91-60 win Monday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena, and the damage was done almost immediately. OSU jumped out to a 17-2 lead in the first 5:26, then Luka Bogavac buried a three-pointer at the end of the first half to send the Cowboys into the locker room up 31.
That margin mattered. The 31-point victory is the largest of Steve Lutz’s first two full seasons as head coach, surpassing a 27-point win over Prairie View A&M in November 2025.
Bogavac led the way with 14 points, and four Cowboys finished in double figures. Jordan Burks, Parker Robinson and senior Andrij Grbovic joined him in that group as Oklahoma State spread the scoring around and controlled the game from the opening stretch.
The first half also showed the kind of defensive edge Lutz has been trying to build. Incarnate Word managed just 17 points before halftime, shooting 29.2% from the field while turning it over 12 times. That kind of start stood in sharp contrast to OSU’s exhibition slate, when the Cowboys gave up 99 points to New Mexico, 85 to Tulsa and 82 to Wisconsin for an average of 88.6 points per game.
Still, the second half kept the performance from being a complete 40-minute statement. The Cardinals scored 43 points after the break, and Lutz made it clear that was not good enough.
“We’ve got to make the first half our DNA for 40 minutes,” Lutz said. “I’m not taking anything away from Incarnate Word, but we lost the second half and that’s unacceptable.
If we can do it for 18 of 20 minutes then you should be able to replicate that for 40 minutes. That’s got to be our mantra and that’s got to be our goal.”
That defensive focus has been a major theme for Lutz, especially after Oklahoma State ranked No. 354 in total defense last season and allowed 83.2 points per game.
The Cowboys also played without senior point guard Kanye Clary, who is working back from a hamstring injury. He dressed Monday but did not go through warmups, and Lutz said his status is day-to-day.
“We’re not going to rush him, obviously,” Lutz said. “We’re going to try and make sure we’re as cautious as we can with being as aggressive as we can. He’s practicing and some days it feels better than others and that’s the tricky thing about groin injuries and stuff like that.
"Really, there’s no measurement stick where you can say you’re at this point you need to play. So, Kanye is a person who fought through injuries last year so he deserves some credibility and leeway here and we’re going to give it to him.”
Clary started 31 of OSU’s 35 games last season and led the team with 157 assists while ranking second with 40 steals.
In his absence, sophomore guard Jacob Walker handled the point and did plenty of the organizing. The Sam Houston transfer finished with eight assists and four steals, and he matched the program record for assists by a player making his Cowboy debut. That assist total tied Kendall Smith (2017), Stevie Clark (2013), Doug Gottlieb (1997) and Andre Owens (1994).
“I think just about everything (went well distributing the ball),” Walker said. “We got guys that can make shots and it made it a lot easier for me to make it easier for them.
I was just taking what the defense gave me. It was nothing special."
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