The Daily O’Collegian

The Cowgirls’ NCAA Tournament run came to an ugly end Saturday.

Oklahoma State struggled to even be competitive against LSU, falling 67-52.

OSU’s star player, Andrea Riley, fouled out, and her most replayed highlight was a sucker punch to the back of the head of LSU point guard Erica White.

For the first 26 minutes, no Cowgirl other than Riley made a field goal.

Although the season ended on a down note, the final game shouldn’t overshadow what a truly remarkable year the Cowgirls had.

The Cowgirls won their first eight games to return to the Top 25 for the first time in 11 years. They would climb as high as No. 13, the highest ranking in program history.

In a season in which the men’s basketball team didn’t sell out a single game, a sellout crowd of 13,611 packed Gallagher-Iba Arena to see the Cowgirls beat the Sooners, 82-63, then stormed the court.

It was the largest crowd to ever see a women’s basketball game in Oklahoma as OSU beat OU for the first time in nine years.

Riley’s 45 points in the game were the most ever by a Cowgirl at Gallagher-Iba and the second most in Cowgirl history.

The Cowgirls won on the road against Texas A&M, who won the Big 12 regular season a year ago and the Big 12 Tournament this year.

They swept Baylor, who won the National Championship in 2005, a year the Cowgirls went 7-20.

The Cowgirls beat six ranked opponents. They advanced to the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament. They tied a school record with 27 victories.

They went to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, won a tournament game for the first time in 12 years and made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 17 years.

All of these accomplishments came just two years after the Cowgirls went 6-22, 0-16 Big 12, in coach Kurt Budke’s first year with the program.

The phrase has been heard a lot during the past week, from 0-16 to the Sweet Sixteen, but it bears repeating.

In one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent sports history, Oklahoma State went from winless in conference play to having one of the nation’s premier teams in just two years.

Budke’s team has shined as brightly this season as the orange blazer he’s worn on occasion.

Although Riley may have looked like a hothead Saturday, her play has done wonders for the school.

She led the conference in scoring, made the All-Big 12 team and was a finalist for the Wooden Award, given to the nation’s top player.

Although Cowgirls other than Riley may have struggled to score Saturday, it was a total team effort that got the team so far.

Three Cowgirls—Maria Cordero, Danielle Green and Taylor Hardeman—were Honorable Mention All-Big 12. Shaunté Smith was second in the conference in rebounding.

The Cowgirls will lose Cordero and Green, two seniors who have left a huge mark in two years since transferring from Central Arizona College.

Yet OSU has two years left with Riley, perhaps the best point guard in the nation, and having come so far, so quickly, the program will surely continue to attract top newcomers.

Coming off a season to remember and with as promising of a future as any team at Oklahoma State, it is surely sweet to be a Cowgirl.