It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys made it out of the Lloyd-Noble Center with a win for the first time in 12 Bedlam games on Oklahoma’s home court. A Phil Forte three with 9.9 seconds left gave the Pokes a 68-66 lead, and they would eventually hold on for their first win in Norman since 2004.

Throughout the game, it felt to me that Oklahoma made shots, and Oklahoma State just ... didn’t. There were a lot of shots that could have gone in that just didn’t. Especially layups. See what I mean?

Despite their shooting performance, Oklahoma State managed to keep themselves in the game, going into halftime down by one with a score of 35-36. In the second half, the Cowboys came out strong, eventually jumping to a 10-point lead with 12:34 left in the game on a jumper from Brandon Averette. After that, OU went on a 9-0 run until a Phil Forte jumper made it 55-53. The two teams traded baskets until ...

OSU was clearly the better team in this game, and it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as close as it was, but the Cowboys didn’t get a whole lot from an important piece of the puzzle.

Jeffrey Carroll went 1-8 from the field and 0-3 on 3-point shots, ending with six points. That’s compared to the 20 points he totaled Saturday. If he makes some of those shots, the game isn’t nearly as close.

Phil Forte went 4-11 on field goals and went 3-8 on 3 pointers and totaled 11 points. That’s seven points less than Saturday.

Jawun Evans led the Cowboys offensively tonight with 24 points. Evans went 5-20 from the field and 3-7 from three. Evans struggled from the line, going 11-16 at the charity stripe.

There was a surprise sighting in Norman, however. Lindy Waters showed off in his hometown with 11 points going 4-5 on field goals and 3-3 on three pointers.

Oklahoma’s Kameron McGusty and Dante Buford both had impressive games. McGusty had 22 points and went 9-17 from the field and 1-5 from three. Buford shot 3-5 from the field and 2-4 from beyond the arc.

Fouls were a problem in this game. Oklahoma State had 22 to Oklahoma’s 17. But, Oklahoma went until the 8:41 second mark with one foul.

This was a big win for the Cowboys. Not only do they ride a four game win streak, but they further improve their NCAA Tournament resume, which as it stands now, is just good enough.

Underwood did manage to have some fun though ...

More. Of. This.

BOX SCORE & STATS:

ESPN

NEXT UP: @ West Virginia, Sat. 2/4 4:00 CST.