No. 20 Oklahoma St. 72, No. 8 Baylor 68

3/6/2008 9:55 PM

WACO, Texas (AP) -Oklahoma State made a lot of people wearing purple happy Thursday night.

Andrea Riley scored 27 points and Shaunte Smith added 17, as No. 20 Oklahoma State beat No. 8 Baylor 72-68 and dashed the Bears' chance of sharing the Big 12 regular season championship.

Angela Tisdale had 18 points for Baylor (24-5, 12-4), which could have tied Kansas State for the regular season conference title. Jessica Morrow scored 11 and Danielle Wilson had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

``We knew it was going to be hard to go in there,'' Riley said. ``They hadn't lost a game at home. We thought maybe we could go in there and play them tough and come out with a victory. They're a tough team, and for us to give them their first loss (at home) was very exciting.''

Maria Cordero added nine points for the Cowgirls (23-6, 11-5), seven of them coming in the final four minutes.

``You want to play your best basketball at this time of year, and I think we were there tonight,'' Oklahoma State coach Kurt Budke said.

Oklahoma State took a 42-29 lead with 4:44 left in the first half on consecutive baskets - a jumper and a 3-pointer - by Riley, who scored 19 in the half. But the Bears went into halftime on a 7-2 spurt to close within 43-36.

After two quick baskets to open the second half put the Cowgirls up by 11, Baylor used a 10-2 run to cut the lead to 53-52 with 13:04 remaining. The Bears were trailing by five when Melissa Jones hit a layup on an inbound play.

During the play, Tisdale and Oklahoma State's Taylor Hardeman got tangled in the lane and Hardeman was hit with a technical foul for kicking at Tisdale, who then made two free throws to end the run.

Baylor failed to capitalize on that momentum, however, as Oklahoma State scored six consecutive points to go up 59-52 with 10:40 to play. The Bears answered with three baskets of their own, cutting the lead to 59-58 at the 9:02 mark.

After two Cowgirl free throws, Baylor tied the game on Tisdale's three-point play with 6:40 to play. Smith hit two more free throws to put Oklahoma State up 63-61 and Baylor answered with a 3-pointer from Rachel Allison with 5:16 remaining.

Baylor then went scoreless for the next 3:36, allowing Oklahoma State to edge ahead.

Cordero, who went scoreless in the first half, hit a 3 with 4:00 left and a layup 44 seconds later to put OSU back up 68-66. Rachel Allison's jumper off the glass with 1:40 to play pulled Baylor within two, but Cordero's layup put it out of reach with 37.8 seconds left.

``We said we're going to buy (Cordero) some green contacts,'' Budke said. ``Her best games come against Baylor. I don't know why, but Maria does play well against Baylor and she came through at a very big time tonight.''

With just over 16 seconds left, Tisdale missed a 3-pointer and Allison missed a layup after a rebound.

Wilson's two blocked shots give her 161, a school record, topping the 151 blocks Steffanie Blackmon recorded from 2001-05.