AnniePokely
03-02-2008, 08:10 AM
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
3/2/2008
Last Modified: 3/2/2008 3:10 AM
Team starts slow but Dove, Eaton lead charge past Huskers.
STILLWATER -- What's the NCAA record for earliest turning point in a college basketball game?
Oklahoma State failed to score on seven consecutive possessions to start a Saturday game against Nebraska. It was a game the Cowboys had to win in order to sustain a march to madness and all of a sudden they couldn't make the scoreboard operator lift a finger.
Keep drought-ing against a Husker team that leads the Big 12 in scoring defense and you might have trouble ever securing momentum.
OSU coach Sean Sutton asked for an S.O.S. (save our season).
Marcus Dove answered, and the Cowboys won a fifth consecutive game by beating the Huskers 77-63 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
OSU trailed 4-0 when Dove got a steal and was fouled on a transition dunk. His 3-point play gave the Cowboys their first points at the 15:11 mark of the first half and it sparked a 15-2 run that put the streaking Pokes in the driver's seat to stay.
"Coach was telling us we need to make a play and we need some stops and we need a run-through and Marcus did all three
at once," Byron Eaton said. "That gave us a chance to get a good run going. After he hit that, we started knocking some shots down. . . . Our senior got us going and it sparked a run for us and we never looked back."
Dove scored 17 points, matching his highest point total ever in a conference game, as OSU built a 19-point cushion and settled for its second-most lopsided victory over a Big 12 opponent this season.
Eaton scored a game-high 20 points and Obi Muonelo scored 10 of his 12 points in the last 8:30 to help the Cowboys improve to 16-12 and clinch at least a .500 season. The Pokes evened their Big 12 record at 7-7, exceeding their league victory total of each of the last two seasons.
OSU inherited the Big 12's longest current winning streak when Texas lost Saturday to Texas Tech. The Cowboys are tied for fifth in the league standings.
"We're certainly not satisfied," Sutton said. "We want to try to finish this out and see if we can win the two coming up next week, which are obviously both going to be very difficult and two tough games."
OSU ends the regular season with a Wednesday home game against Oklahoma and a Sunday road game at Texas.
Though Dove said defense has been the common denominator during the winning streak, OSU used offense to leave Nebraska in the dust. The Huskers cut a 12-point margin to four at halftime, but the Cowboys shot 68.6 from the field and 75 percent from 3-point range in the second half to allow the 10,663 in attendance to breathe easy.
"Certainly we executed very well the second half at the offensive end," Sutton said. "Byron came up with another big game and then I thought Marcus Dove really played well today."
Eaton, who is averaging 20.6 points during the streak, said it feels a lot better when you are in the middle of the pack or near the top of the league standings than it does when you are at the bottom. The Cowboys shared last place in the Big 12 with Colorado before launching the winning streak.
Said Eaton, "We've just got to keep going."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/col...1_ hTeam57076
3/2/2008
Last Modified: 3/2/2008 3:10 AM
Team starts slow but Dove, Eaton lead charge past Huskers.
STILLWATER -- What's the NCAA record for earliest turning point in a college basketball game?
Oklahoma State failed to score on seven consecutive possessions to start a Saturday game against Nebraska. It was a game the Cowboys had to win in order to sustain a march to madness and all of a sudden they couldn't make the scoreboard operator lift a finger.
Keep drought-ing against a Husker team that leads the Big 12 in scoring defense and you might have trouble ever securing momentum.
OSU coach Sean Sutton asked for an S.O.S. (save our season).
Marcus Dove answered, and the Cowboys won a fifth consecutive game by beating the Huskers 77-63 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
OSU trailed 4-0 when Dove got a steal and was fouled on a transition dunk. His 3-point play gave the Cowboys their first points at the 15:11 mark of the first half and it sparked a 15-2 run that put the streaking Pokes in the driver's seat to stay.
"Coach was telling us we need to make a play and we need some stops and we need a run-through and Marcus did all three
at once," Byron Eaton said. "That gave us a chance to get a good run going. After he hit that, we started knocking some shots down. . . . Our senior got us going and it sparked a run for us and we never looked back."
Dove scored 17 points, matching his highest point total ever in a conference game, as OSU built a 19-point cushion and settled for its second-most lopsided victory over a Big 12 opponent this season.
Eaton scored a game-high 20 points and Obi Muonelo scored 10 of his 12 points in the last 8:30 to help the Cowboys improve to 16-12 and clinch at least a .500 season. The Pokes evened their Big 12 record at 7-7, exceeding their league victory total of each of the last two seasons.
OSU inherited the Big 12's longest current winning streak when Texas lost Saturday to Texas Tech. The Cowboys are tied for fifth in the league standings.
"We're certainly not satisfied," Sutton said. "We want to try to finish this out and see if we can win the two coming up next week, which are obviously both going to be very difficult and two tough games."
OSU ends the regular season with a Wednesday home game against Oklahoma and a Sunday road game at Texas.
Though Dove said defense has been the common denominator during the winning streak, OSU used offense to leave Nebraska in the dust. The Huskers cut a 12-point margin to four at halftime, but the Cowboys shot 68.6 from the field and 75 percent from 3-point range in the second half to allow the 10,663 in attendance to breathe easy.
"Certainly we executed very well the second half at the offensive end," Sutton said. "Byron came up with another big game and then I thought Marcus Dove really played well today."
Eaton, who is averaging 20.6 points during the streak, said it feels a lot better when you are in the middle of the pack or near the top of the league standings than it does when you are at the bottom. The Cowboys shared last place in the Big 12 with Colorado before launching the winning streak.
Said Eaton, "We've just got to keep going."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/col...1_ hTeam57076