Cowboys Fall To Aggies

There’s good news and bad news for the Oklahoma State basketball team. First, the bad news is the 12th-ranked Cowboys lost a 67-49 decision to eighth-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday night. The good news is OSU has finished the toughest part of its Big 12 schedule – consecutive games against No. 5 Kansas, No. 21 Texas and No. 8 Texas A&M – and now enters a five-game stretch of very winnable contests.

Oklahoma State had a chance Saturday night against Texas A&M to break a 49-year road losing streak to top-10 ranked teams (the last time a Cowboy team defeated a top-10 team on the road was on Jan. 2, 1958 when they beat No. 2-ranked Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in Lawrence, Kan.) but couldn’t get it done.

The Cowboys never really gave themselves much of a chance against the Aggies, falling behind 6-0 in the first few minutes of the game.

Texas A&M, now 16-2 and all alone atop the Big 12 Conference standings with a 4-0 record, led by as many as 15 points in the first half. The Aggies took a 38-28 halftime lead and the Cowboys got back in the game by opening the second half with a 9-2 run, including Kenny Cooper’s power move inside to make it 40-37 with 14:42 on the clock. OSU had three possessions to get closer but could not convert.

But the Aggies would go on a 14-6 run – and the Cowboys would go more than 10 minutes without scoring another bucket after Cooper’s two-pointer – to go up 54-43 with five minutes remaining. The Cowboys would never get any closer as the Aggies pulled away in the game’s final minutes.

The Cowboys trailed by as many as 15 in the first half, and it would have been a lot more if not for Curry. The 6-3 junior scored 13 of the Cowboys’ 28 points in the first 20 minutes. OSU made just seven shots from the field, and four of those came from Curry, including three three-pointers.

OSU trailed 33-18 with 3:50 left in the first half, and had made just four of 17 shots from the field while turning the ball over eight times. But the Cowboys outscored the Aggies 10-5 over the last few minutes of the first half to pull within 10 as Curry drilled a pair of long-range treys and Boggan added a basket and two free throws.

Curry led the Cowboys with 20 points. Boggan was the only other Cowboy in double figures with 11 points (on 2-of-8 shooting from the field) and 8 rebounds.

The Cowboys, 16-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, won’t have long to rest as they will return to the court for a nationally televised showdown (ESPN) with Bedlam rival Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Monday inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.

After facing the Sooners, the schedule has the Cowboys facing Iowa State (at Gallagher-Iba Arena), at Colorado, at Oklahoma, and back inside GIA against Texas Tech.