OSU Cowboys fall in west Texas

By Justin Hite Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State couldn’t have possibly survived the situation they were in early in the second half.

Guard James Anderson just picked up his fourth foul and headed to the bench with 15:12 remaining at Texas Tech, the Cowboys trailing by 18 and only 6 points under his name on the scoreboard.

Oklahoma State shouldn’t have been able to keep up with Texas Tech during the 8 minutes Anderson spent on the bench, but it did. And once Anderson returned, it took a fluke play to take him out of the game and eventually end Oklahoma State’s rally in an 81-74 loss.

With just more than 5 minutes to play, Oklahoma State trapped the Red Raiders just inside of half court. The arrant pass went off a referee’s head and left Anderson defending in a 2-on-1 situation. He picked up his fifth foul and over the final five minutes, forwards Marshall Moses and Matt Pilgrim followed him to the bench.

Even after Anderson left, the Cowboys trimmed the lead to 4 points, but struggled late.

“I love the fight we had in our team, but once we got it back to four, we made a lot of bad decisions,” Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said. “We fouled the wrong people, we didn’t pass the ball when we were open. What got us back within four points, we should have made a lot better decisions once we got the game back in a reasonable amount.”

Oklahoma State kept up with Texas Tech because of the play of sophomore guard Keiton Page. Once Anderson left with four fouls, Page picked up his fourth foul less than a minute later. But the Pawnee star stayed on the court and Page scored 20 points. He finished the game with 22 points, tying a career-high, after being held scoreless in the first half. Page also led the Cowboys in assists with 4.

Moses, who didn’t start and was the third big man off the bench behind Torin Walker, struggled late in the game. After OSU cut the lead to 4, Moses picked up his fourth foul, missed a shot inside and turned the ball over in the next four total possessions for either team. Moses did finish the game just shy of a double-double with 9 points and 8 rebounds. Moses only played 19 minutes.

Pilgrim picked up his fourth foul on the very next Texas Tech possession and after two free throws from Red Raiders’ forward Mike Singletary, suddenly a 4-point lead was a 10-point advantage for the Red Raiders (15-7, 3-5).

“We battled back,” Page said. “That’s something we definitely did do. We battled back and cut it to four. When we did do that and cut it to four, we just didn’t make the plays. We made some silly mistakes when we did cut it and they pulled it back to 10.”

Not even the return of starting point guard Ray Penn, who came off the bench, could fix OSU’s turnover problems. OSU (16-7 overall, 4-5 Big 12) turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and 21 times in the game.

Texas Tech went 36-for-46 from the free throw line as the Cowboys committed 31 fouls.

Anderson hit only 2 field goals and finished with a season-low 10 points. Anderson has now scored in double figures in 37 straight games.

“When he does that our team is going to struggle, but there are a lot of reasons behind that,” Ford said.

Texas Tech’s victory gave Pat Knight his first victory against the Cowboys, while keeping Ford from his 40th win for the third straight game. Texas Tech guard John Roberson led all scorers with a season-high 28 points after being held scoreless in Stillwater earlier this year. Singletary added 22.

“The tale of the tape is in the stats,” Ford said. “We had 21 turnovers. Our point guards had 1 assist and 9 turnovers. Their point guard had 28 points, 3 assists and 1 turnover. Our two leading scorers went 5-for-20. There two leading scorers scored 50 points. ... You’re not going to go on the road in this league and when your point guards have 1 assist and 9 turnovers and your two leading scorers go 5-for-20, you’re probably gonna get beat by 15, 20, 25 points.”

Oklahoma State takes a week off before hosting Oklahoma in the second edition of Bedlam at 1 p.m. next Saturday.