Okie-State clips Mizzou
LE’BRYAN NASH SCORES CAREER HIGH 27 PTS AS COWBOYS TAME TIGERS. Associated Press
STILLWATER, Okla. – Keiton Page tried to explain to his Oklahoma State teammates the sensation of fans rushing the Gallagher-Iba Arena court to celebrate a big upset. With freshman swingman Le’Bryan Nash flashing the brilliance that made him a McDonald’s All-American, they got to experience it for themselves.
Nash scored a career-high 27 points, Brian Williams added a career-best 22 and Oklahoma State knocked off No. 2 Missouri 79-72 on Wednesday night, handing the Tigers their second loss of the season. “Le’Bryan played at a very high speed tonight, a very high gear. All of his moves were a little bit more explosive,” Cowboys coach Travis Ford said.
Nash scored 13 points during a 17-4 burst that sent the Cowboys (10-10, 3-4 Big 12) into the lead in the final 4 minutes and the Tigers didn’t have a response.
Nash hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to get it going, then nailed another 3 from the left side to give the Cowboys a 65-64 lead with 3:23 to play. He connected on another 29 seconds later and ran to the opposite end of the court when Missouri (18-2, 5-2) called timeout to encourage a student section that was already hopping up and down to bring it on.
When the clock hit zero, the students rushed the court and huddled around Oklahoma State’s players at midcourt. Earlier in the week, Page fielded questions from his younger teammates about his experiences from an upset of top-ranked Kansas two seasons ago, hoping for a similar result.
“A lot of them just wanted to know what it was like for the students to run on the floor,” Page said. “My answer’s a lot different for them. I’m 5-9. They can see, they can breathe when it happens.” Ricardo Ratliffe had 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead Missouri, which allowed the Cowboys to shoot a season-best 59 percent. They hadn’t surpassed 49 percent against an NCAA opponent all season.
“I thought that our focus was not where it needed to be in order to win a game like this on the road,” Tigers coach Frank Haith said.
Missouri got steals on three straight possessions to fuel a 10-2 run in the first 5 minutes of the second half, taking a 48-41 lead when Ratliffe waited out two defenders leaping prematurely to block his shot at the left block before scoring the basket. Ratliffe’s three-point play off a spinning bucket at the right block gave the Tigers their largest lead at 53-45 with 14:22 to play, but it didn’t last.
“I expected it to be a hard-fought game,” Haith said. “This is Big 12 basketball. There’s good players.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do to finish the game out once we got control of the game.” Nash had a bucket off a baseline inbounds pass and another off a post-up move against Kim English to get Oklahoma State within striking distance.
Markel Brown added another energizing play with a right-handed dunk off an alley-oop but got called for his second technical foul for getting in Matt Pressey’s face and was ejected. Marcus Denmon hit the two free throws from the technical and Ratliffe added two more off a third-chance opportunity to push the lead back to 60-53, but the Cowboys didn’t miss a beat.
After Nash’s big spurt, Williams had a two-handed dunk in transition and a three-point play to help preserve the lead down the stretch. Nash had scored 21 points four times this season but was coming off a rough performance when he had only four points and got himself into foul trouble.
“I was trying to get aggressive in the second half,” Nash said. “I talked to my coaches and they were like, ‘Don’t try to let the ball come to you. Go get the ball.’ Basically, that’s what my teammates did. My teammates got me the ball in good situations and once it started rolling, the shots started falling.”
Ford credited a renewed commitment from Nash, who stuck around for extra shots following shootaround instead of joining his teammates to eat. “When he’s shooting like that, give him the ball every single time. He was making big plays on the offensive end and the defensive end,” Page said.
“If (Nash) keeps playing like that and we keep playing as a team, we could be a dangerous team in the Big 12.”
Denmon finished with 17 points but on 4-for-16 shooting. Phil Pressey, the Big 12’s assists leader, matched his season low with two. It continued a rough stretch for Top 25 Missouri teams in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Tigers have lost six straight games while ranked in Stillwater, dating back to 1992, and may not be visiting again anytime soon with next season’s move to the Southeastern Conference.
Four of those six losses have come at the hands of unranked Oklahoma State teams. Brown provided a boost right from the start with a thunderous right-handed jam on Oklahoma State’s first possession after winning the tip. He picked up a technical foul 90 seconds into the game that seemed inconsequential at the time but eventually led to his dismissal.
OSU made an uncharacteristic 57 percent of its shots while leading most of the first half. Page’s step-back jumper from the left elbow provided the Cowboys a 37-36 lead at the break. The first half marked the third-best shooting performance in a half this season for Oklahoma State, the Big 12’s worst shooting team at 41 percent, only to be outdone by a 62 percent mark after halftime.
“It’s a huge win for us. It’s a big win,” Page said. “It just shows us what we’re capable of. It shows us we can play with anybody. We still have a long ways to go. … This team’s hungry. This team’s hungry for wins.”
KANSAS STATE PUMMELS TEXAS TECH
LUBBOCK, Texas – Martavious Irving scored 16 points and Rodney McGruder had 13 to lead Kansas State (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) over Texas Tech 69-47 on Wednesday night, keeping the Red Raiders winless in Big 12 play. The Wildcats trailed briefly early but pulled away when they started hitting shots. They muscled their way into the lane and outscored Texas Tech 36-20 in the paint.
Kansas State (15-4, 4-3 Big 12) pressed on defense, making it difficult for Texas Tech to find passing lanes. That led to a season-high 25 turnovers for the Red Raiders — 12 were Kansas State steals — which the Wildcats converted into 27 points. Texas Tech was averaging 17 turnovers coming into the game. The Wildcats had 17 turnovers, leading to seven points for the Red Raiders.
Freshman Jordan Tolbert scored 18 points to lead Texas Tech (7-12, 0-7). The Wildcats’ depth hurt the Red Raiders. Bench players contributed more than half of Kansas State’s points (38), while Texas Tech got 13 from its reserves.
Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press
January 26th, 2012 at 1:38 am
Trap game. Can’t win em all. That said I am very dissapointed and a loss like that is pretty unacceptable. Big difference in this game was our bench did nada and we were out muscled. Given that we are not much deeper than a wading pool, when the bench has an off night it kills you. The out muscled issue is going to keep happening unless Haith shows some more faith (no pun intended) in moore and turns him into a guy who gets 25 minutes a game.
For all you KU fans I’m one of many Missouri people who are thrilled that our association is coming to an end. Enjoy your big rivalry game against…..oh yeah no one…. Oh wait you get to play KST. Yes that rivalry game NO ONE outside of Kansas watches and that rivalry game NO ONE outside of Kansas cares about. Wait didn’t you guys just hire Charlie Weis? Oh you are gonna be a national powerhouse in football….LMAO!…
January 26th, 2012 at 6:04 am
You sound upset and jaded about the loss last night. Voice your frustrations. Let it all out.
Tell me again who Mizzou’s rival will be in the SEC? Texas A&M? Oh my. Arkansas isn’t even on the schedule. But sure make fun of KState, an instate rival for KU. Maybe you guys could play Missouri State and start an instate one of your own?
January 26th, 2012 at 6:41 am
I know i am late to the pity party but why stop now All you Mu fans that talked about how bad our loss was to Davidson where are you losers now. I watched the game and i saw what i saw last year out of the pressey bros. When they get frustrated they revert to the me me me theory of basketball. They start forcing and forget the rest of the team. When that happens Mu is not playing to there strengths and thats what is prevalent in both there loses this year. Now im done with all the nice stuff see you on Feb 4
January 26th, 2012 at 7:56 am
Well that Nash kid finally showed up. He was supposed to be doing that all season long. Maybe that game will get him where he needs to be confidence wise.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:19 am
I think they are a legit #2 given the teams they beat. I also think it would be hard for any top team in the country to beat a team that shoots 59% on their own court. Sure there were some easy buckets, but they were hitting every contested shot too. It was just one of those games that you cant win no matter what. Every team experiences it. Kansas experienced it against Davidson, Ohio St vs IL who MU beat, Syracuse against ND who MU beat, etc…. It happens. This is still a great team and will make a run in the tourney if they can stay healthy because they are not deep.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:28 am
MUCK FIZZOU