Oklahoma St. 59, No. 16 Texas A&,M 54
2/16/2008 6:06 PM
By KRISTIE RIEKEN
AP Sports Writer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -Oklahoma State broke a more than two-year road losing streak where it all began.
Byron Eaton had 17 points, including two free throws with 9 seconds left, to lead the Cowboys to a 59-54 victory over No. 16 Texas A&M on Saturday, breaking a 19-game skid away from home.
The win broke a 16-game conference road losing streak for the Cowboys (13-12, 4-7 Big 12) and snapped a five-game winning streak for the Aggies (20-5, 6-4).
The first loss in this skid was a 46-44 defeat by A&M on Feb. 11, 2006. The Cowboys hadn't won on the road since a 63-61 win at Kansas State on Feb. 4 of that year.
``I'm happy for our guys and really proud for them,'' said Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton, who notched his first road win as head coach Saturday. ``I know that they were tired and our fans were tired of this losing streak on the road. It's a big burden to finally get behind us.''
Dominique Kirk made one of two free throws to bring Texas A&M within 55-53 with just more than a minute to play.
Derrick Roland stole the ball from Eaton with less than a minute to play and Donald Sloan looked like he was on the way to an easy layup before Terrel Harris came from behind for the block.
``Terrel came out of nowhere,'' Marcus Dove said. ``That was a great play, basically he saved the game for us.''
Obi Muonelo made two free throws after the Aggies were forced to foul to make it 57-53 with 16 seconds left.
Sloan made the second of two free throws with 11 seconds left to cut Oklahoma State's lead to 57-54, before Eaton ensured the win with his free throws.
Oklahoma State overcame a three-point deficit with an 8-4 run, fueled by five points by Eaton, to go up 53-50 with about five minutes left. Eaton had a 3-pointer, and the 5-foot-11 point guard drove around A&M's big men for an easy layup.
``This is one of the greatest feelings,'' said Eaton, a junior who grew up in Dallas. ``We stopped that streak that we had, that is been going on for two years.''
Both Sutton and Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said Eaton, who had five assists, was the key.
``When he plays well our team plays well,'' Sutton said. ``This the way I envisioned him playing when we recruited him.''
Said Turgeon: ``Byron Eaton was in total control of the game and we couldn't get a rebound,'' he said. ``I told them: 'Keep Eaton in front of you and make him shoot jump shots.' And we couldn't do it.''
Oklahoma State outrebounded A&M 32-27.
The Aggies got within one on a dunk by Bryan Davis with less than three minutes remaining, but the Cowboys answered with a jump shot by Harris that made it 55-52.
The Cowboys opened the second half with a 7-1 run capped by a 3-pointer by Muonelo to take a 41-37 lead. Texas A&M's problems early in the second half came mostly from poor rebounding and several mishandled passes in the post.
``We just didn't come out ready to play in the second half,'' Joseph Jones said. ``We weren't aggressive and we paid for it. They got every loose ball and we didn't rebound well.''
DeAndre Jordan, who led A&M with 15 points, then made his first appearance in the second half and provided a spark by scoring Texas A&M's next four points.
The Aggies regained the lead about two minutes later on a 3-pointer by Sloan that made it 46-45.
Texas A&M led by as many as nine points midway through the first half, but Oklahoma State went on a 12-4 run to tie it at 28-all on a 3-pointer by Muonelo about 4 minutes before halftime. The Aggies led 36-34 at halftime.
Muonelo added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Cowboys.
The game was played in front of a record crowd of 13,584, including former Texas A&M All-America Acie Law IV. Law, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks, was honored in a halftime ceremony in which he became the first A&M player to have a banner of his jersey was raised to the rafters of Reed Arena.
Eaton was upset that A&M chose to honor Law during their game.
``That's disrespecting us,'' Eaton said. ``I'm sorry to mess up this day for them, but it was a great day for us.''
Sutton brushed off Eaton's comments .
``I didn't sense that at all from our players,'' he said. ``Acie Law deserves to be honored. This is All-Star weekend and was the right time to do it. I don't know why he said that. That was never even discussed.''
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