STILLWATER — Oklahoma State did a little bit of everything on Tuesday night.

Everything but win.

The Cowboys remained without a Big 12 Conference victory after falling to TCU 74-69 Tuesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

OSU had a 12-0 run, a 17-point lead and an 8-minute, 45-second drought without a field goal. It had inspired performances from key players like John-Michael Wright and Eric Dailey Jr., but stretches of lifeless play that couldn’t pull the Pokes out of the second-half hole they found themselves in.

They made it interesting, getting within three with under 30 seconds to play.

Two critical foul calls went against the Cowboys in the final minute — one that was called a blocking foul on Bryce Thompson and another that was called a charge on Javon Small.

The result was only one additional TCU point, but it was too much for the Pokes to overcome.

Wright led the Cowboys with 16 points and Small added 15, but the Cowboys still fell to 8-11 overall and 0-6 in Big 12 play.

Here are three takeaways from the OSU loss:

More: From Oklahoma State PG to 'Uncle A.' TCU's Avery Anderson faces Cowboys in new life phase.

Avery Anderson III wins in return

Former Cowboy Avery Anderson III made his one and only return to Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday. After four years at OSU, he transferred to TCU for his final season of eligibility, and he turned in a crucial performance to close the door on his former teammates.

Anderson battled foul trouble but finished with 15 points, four assists and three rebounds, going 6-of-9 from the floor.

He re-entered with three fouls and the game tied at the 7:32 mark of the second half, and over the next 90 seconds, he made a 3-pointer and had a steal, a blocked shot and an assist to put TCU up 66-61. In the final minute, with TCU leading 72-69, Anderson drew a charging foul on Javon Small as he drove toward the basket to kill a critical OSU possession.

“Just trying to get the win,” Anderson said of his impact plays. “Doing whatever I could do to get the win, whether that’s on the defensive end making a play or on the offensive end making a play. Doing whatever I need to do to help the team win.”

Anderson scored eight points over the final six minutes of the first half, helping TCU narrow the 17-point deficit to a 37-33 halftime difference.

“I knew going in they was gonna have an edge,” Anderson said. “Coach B’s team, they always gonna have an edge. I knew I had to keep my team calm and keep on going.”

Eric Dailey Jr. strong off bench

Last weekend at Kansas State, Boynton altered his starting five with the addition of Wright and freshman Connor Dow. They took the spots of Dailey and Quion Williams.

Wright and Dow were back in the lineup again Tuesday and made a quick impact. Wright scored OSU’s first basket on a baseline drive. Dow chased down a loose ball, poking it ahead to Bryce Thompson who finished off the fastbreak layup.

But once he got his chance, Dailey brought a quick spark off the bench as well, scoring on an alley-oop and a layup on OSU’s first two possessions after he entered.

Dailey finished with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting with four rebounds.

Wright has also responded well in his return to the starting lineup. He was 3-of-6 from 3-point range and his 16 points were a season high. There were stretches earlier in the season when Wright was playing fewer than 10 minutes per game.

“I just kept the same mindset, even when I wasn’t playing as much,” Wright said. “Just trying to give the most I can to my team. The coaches, they put me back in, let me get more back in the groove, and I feel good.

“But ultimately, it wasn’t enough. I’ll feel better when we get the wins. But they’re gonna come.”

More: Big 12 power rankings: TCU biggest riser in deep league displaying home-court advantage

Cowboys keeping focus during slump

Boynton isn’t downplaying the pain of the Cowboys’ six-game losing streak. But he knows he can’t let his team become engaged only with the losses.

“What we gotta do is make sure we don’t get distracted from the process of getting better,” he said. “That process doesn’t change based off the results. In fact, you gotta believe so much in what you do and who you are that you get more committed to the process that you have in place.

“The bottom line is we gotta keep working until we find the result that we want. Tonight, we came up short again. Lost to a good team, but at some point, we gotta be able to knock this tree down.”

Perhaps the Cowboys’ best chance for a win in the next few weeks comes Saturday when they host West Virginia at 1 p.m.

The Mountaineers entered Tuesday night with a 7-11 overall record and 2-3 mark in Big 12 play, though one of those wins was against then-No. 3 Kansas. West Virginia also beat Texas.

After Saturday, the Cowboys have a string of challenging games, including road trips to highly ranked opponents Kansas, Houston and OU in a four-game span.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State basketball falls short vs. TCU, drops to 0-6 in Big 12