Oklahoma State Ends Losing Streak, Beats TCU

Some people don't believe there is such a thing as a bad win. Oklahoma State tried to prove those people wrong on Wednesday. The Cowboys hosted the TCU Horned Frogs for senior night in the regular season home finale. With the final score 82-70, the Cowboys won, but the first half was ugly.

Neither the Cowboys nor the Horned Frogs (17-13 overall, 4-13 Big 12) were scoring that much the first twenty minutes of the game. The half had three periods of at least two minutes where there was no scoring at all, and the Cowboys started one-of-eleven from the field. Not good.

"I thought we were playing well the first half, just couldn't get any shots to fall," OSU coach Travis Ford said. "Missed a lot of easy shots and they were making a lot of shots but our guys kept fighting, I never saw their shoulder slump."

OSU senior Le'Bryan Nash, who played his last minutes at Gallagher-Iba on Wednesday, led the team through the first half with 15 points, the only Cowboy in double digits.

"He had a good game, I liked the pace of his game, thought he played strong around the rim, unselfish and proud of how he played" Ford said. "I thought he rebounded the ball well and scored points, got to the free throw line, made his free throws and did well."

After the rough start, the Cowboys (18-11, 8-9) were able to grab the lead in the last four minutes of the half with a layup from guard Phil Forte and keep the 34-30 lead until halftime.

Then it was time for the Cowboys to do what it has done all season, go in at half and do the exact opposite of what it did the first twenty minutes.

"It was just a good stretch," Nash said. "Hick started hitting his shots, Phil started hitting his shots and I got like two and-ones I think. Your game starts stretching, we stopped them on defense, we got like six or seven stops so I think that opened up the game and we start scoring on the break and Hick got real hot and we just fed off of him."

The Cowboys opened up the second half with the lead and never looked back, starting on a six-minute scoring run of 20-8 in large thanks to Nash and Anthony Hickey, the senior transfer from LSU.

"With these two guys in the game, it makes it a lot easier for me," Hickey said. "I just do my job of putting them in the better situation on where they score the ball and eventually guys going to help man.

"And they helped off and I was open, it makes us a tough team when everyone is doing their job, doing their part, and I just pick up the extras."