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BASKETBALL RECAP: Oklahoma State 77, Kansas State 61

The Cowboys took the Wildcats' best shot, Big 12 officials cooperated appropriately on Senior Night, and OSU punched their ticket to March Madness.

By Robert Whetsell
THANK YOU MASON!!
THANK YOU MASON!!

There will be some good highlights from this game, but this one pretty much sums up a great Senior Night for the Cowboys as the crowd chanted "Mason." I was begging for this all game long...


This was a ragged game with 62 combined FT attempts on 46 fouls.

Kansas State was physical down low, reeling in 21 offensive boards and out rebounding OSU by ten for the game. But, like the Jayhawks, they couldn't overcome their disadvantage at the line (18-28 vs 28-34). Combine that with shooting 34.5% from the field (3-25 from 3) and the table was set for the Cowboys.

Of course it doesn't hurt when Phil Forte starts hitting 3's from the east end zone in BPS. Here are your stats courtesy of ESPN:

Kansas State Wildcats
STARTERS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Nino Williams, F 2-8 0-0 4-4 4 2 6 0 1 0 1 3 8
Thomas Gipson, F 4-6 0-0 2-4 7 6 13 2 0 1 4 4 10
Wesley Iwundu, F 4-11 0-0 2-4 5 5 10 2 0 0 4 2 10
Marcus Foster, G 4-16 1-7 0-0 1 0 1 4 0 0 1 2 9
Will Spradling, G 3-4 0-1 3-4 0 2 2 0 2 1 0 3 9
BENCH FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
D.J. Johnson, F 0-0 0-0 2-4 2 1 3 0 0 0 1 2 2
Ryan Schultz, F 1-1 1-1 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
Nigel Johnson, G 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 3 2 1 1 2 0
Jevon Thomas, G 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 0
Omari Lawrence, G 1-2 0-1 2-2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 4
Shane Southwell, G 1-7 1-4 1-2 0 2 2 0 0 2 2 3 4
Shawn Meyer, G 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brian Rohleder, G 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
20-58 3-15 18-28 21 20 41 12 5 5 14 26 61
34.5% 20.0% 64.3%
Oklahoma State Cowboys
STARTERS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Kamari Murphy, C 0-1 0-0 4-4 1 5 6 0 1 1 2 3 4
Le'Bryan Nash, F 5-11 0-0 3-4 1 4 5 2 1 0 1 4 13
Marcus Smart, G 5-8 1-3 7-9 1 5 6 5 3 1 2 4 18
Markel Brown, G 2-5 0-2 11-13 0 5 5 5 3 2 3 3 15
Phil Forte, III, G 7-15 6-11 3-4 0 3 3 1 1 1 0 2 23
BENCH FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Leyton Hammonds, F 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brian Williams, F 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Marek Soucek, F 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Christien Sager, F 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Mason Cox, F 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Ford Stuen, G 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alex Budke, G 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
TOTALS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
21-44 7-17 28-34 6 25 31 14 9 5 9 20 77
47.7% 41.2% 82.4%


All in all a pretty solid night to send off Marcus, Markel, and Mason. But what about Nash? He did not receive the Blackmon/Smart early send off, so is there anything to be made of that?

As I mentioned above, I'm confident this just solidified a spot for the Cowboys in the NCAA Tournament. At this point, though, I'm hoping for either higher or lower than an 8-9 seed. Want no part of a #1 team for game 2 if OSU gets past game 1.

The even better part of this is that OSU doesn't need a win in Hilton to go anywhere. It also doesn't hurt that the Cowboys only have 1 game between now and the Big 12 tournament (8 days) which starts Wednesday, March 12. Those legs have to be SHOT.

Smart did his usual 18-6-5-3-1 line to say goodbye, and Markel went 15-5-5-3-2. Phil Forte led all scorers with 23 on 6-11 from deep. Marcus Foster came out hot for the Wildcats, but then, according to KState HC Bruce Weber, this happened...

Chris Ross will have some more highlights up later, but for now it's on to Ames to close out the regular season this coming Saturday at 1pm Central on ESPN.

Thank you Markel, Mason, and Marcus.

GO POKES!!!

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