Boggan, Cowboys Upset Aggies

OKLAHOMA CITY – Mario Boggan hasn’t put up the numbers in the first two rounds of the Big 12 Tournament to prove he deserved to be a first-team all-conference selection. But when it mattered most Friday night he came up with the shot of the tournament when he scored on a baseline move with 11.5 seconds for the winning basket in Oklahoma State’s 57-56 victory over seventh-ranked Texas A&M.

The Cowboys, now 22-11, defeated the Aggies, 25-6, for the first time this season, and won their sixth consecutive game dating back to 2005 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. OSU advances to Saturday’s semifinals where they will face either Texas or Baylor, who were playing Friday night’s late game.

The Cowboys know in order to return to the NCAA Tournament after missing out last year for the first time in nine seasons that they were going to have to win four games in four days to capture the Big 12 tourney title and the conference’s automatic bid. They are now halfway there.

“We are certainly not satisfied. We did not come here to win two games. We came here to win four and we’re happy to still be playing tomorrow,” Cowboy head coach Sean Sutton said.

But with 15 minutes left in the game – after A&M’s Antanas Kavaliauskas scored to make it 35-26 – the Cowboys appeared to be in trouble. But OSU clamped down on the Aggies the rest of the way. Acie Law and Joseph Jones entered the game averaging 18.2 and 13.2 points, respectively, but when the game was on the line the Cowboy defense clamped down on that pair. Law’s last points came with 9:06 remaining, and Jones’ final basket was with 7:05 left.

“We just basically played D. We just played intense D on them,” said Boggan.

“One of the things that we felt like we had to do and we talked about it today at the shoot-around, we talked about it at the pregame meal and then again before the game is that we did not want Acie Law to beat us. We wanted to force somebody else on their team to beat us, and I thought Marcus (Dove) and JamesOn (Curry) both did a great job on him the majority of the game,” said Sutton of the first-team All-Big 12 guard, who missed his only shot and did not have an assist in the final five minutes.

Boggan tied David Monds for team-high scoring honors with 11 points, but none were bigger than the final two.

The Cowboys came out of a timeout with 21.3 seconds remaining intent on getting the ball to the 6-7 Boggan and letting him make something happen.

“Coach drew up a good play,” said Boggan, who scored over the 6-9 Kavaliauskas for the winning points. “He just wanted me to get the ball and go to the hole hard. I mean, that’s what I put in my head, go to the basket. Don’t settle for any jump shot. Rip through and get to the basket and try to finish.”

Sutton said, “I thought Mario made a great play late. We set up an isolation play for him against Kavaliauskas. It was a play we used in the past when Tony Allen was here. That’s what good players do – make a great play - and we were able to beat a great team tonight.”

The Cowboys shot just 39.6 percent from the field (21 of 53) but turned the ball over a season-low 12 times. They also hit their free throws (11 of 12), and the Aggies didn't (12 of 20).

"They were pretty tough in there and they made their free throws and we missed ours," A&M coach Billy Gillespie said.

“I am really happy for our players and really happy for our fans because this has been a tough, tough stretch the last three weeks the way that we’ve played,” Sutton said. “I’m just really proud of how hard our players have competed so far through this tournament.”