The 6-foot-6 sophomore from Aiken, S.C., had his best game in a Cowboy uniform against the Aggies, surpassing his previous best of nine points (vs. Prairie View A&M in his very first game as a freshman on Nov. 11, 2007) and four rebounds.
The Cowboys improve to 12-3 overall, while the Aggies saw their record fall to 14-2 while suffering their first loss since Nov. 28 against Tulsa.
"I've been discouraged a lot. Even this year I have been," said Moses, who was averaging just 2.1 points and 1.5 rebound while playing an average of 7.1 minutes in the first 14 games.
"Coach Ford is such a great guy; he's always telling me that my chance would come. I just listened to him, and my chance came and I played well," added Moses.
When did Moses begin to think that Saturday night was going to be his night to shine? "I never did really. Every time I made a play I just felt like we were closer to winning," he said. "I knew Texas A&M wasn't going to give up and I kept looking at the clock and saying that we were closer to winning.
"I didn't know what type of numbers I had until I came out of the game. I thought I had something like six (points) and five (rebounds). I really did.
"I had some good moments as a freshman here, and did a couple of good things, but to actually be a productive player in a Big 12 game is just a blessing. I feel good about it."
The two biggest points of Moses’ 35-game playing career – and the play of the game – came with just a little more than five minutes to play.
Oklahoma State had stretched a four-point halftime lead to 60-42 with less than nine minutes remaining in the game before Texas A&M decided it wasn’t heading back to College Station without putting a scare into the Gallagher-Iba Arena crowd of 9,045 (the largest to see the Cowboys in Stillwater this season).
The Aggies went on a 12-2 run to make it 62-54 and had a chance to cut the Cowboy lead when OSU’s Terrel Harris missed a reverse layup on the next possession. But Moses was there for the tip in, and was fouled (although he would miss the free throw) to break a Cowboy scoring drought of nearly three minutes.
Oklahoma State scored the next two times it had the ball, stretching the lead to 68-54 before Texas A&M’s B.J. Holmes drilled a three-pointer with 3:00 left on the clock. But the Cowboys and Moses held on for the victory.
Moses finished with the first double-double of his career before fouling out with 1:16 remaining in the game but the game was all but over with by that time. Of his 13 rebounds, seven came on the offensive end of the floor as he helped the Cowboys out-rebounded the taller, bigger Aggies, 38-36.
"Marshall has been doing that in practice the last three or four days. He's actually been on an amazing streak scoring the ball in practice," Cowboy head coach Travis Ford said.
"It all has to do with attitude with Marshall. If he'll just enjoy being a Cowboy and enjoy being at Oklahoma State, and just enjoy life and not worry about so many things, he can be very good. He can help this basketball team. But Marshall was into a little bit of a funk because he was worried that he wasn't playing, and he had too many other things bothering him."
Teammate Obi Muonelo said, "His numbers do not lie. He came out there tonight and was a beast. Every day in practice I have been telling him that after a while he is going to start scoring in the game. That is what he did tonight. He brought what he does in practice out here and did it in front of all of you."
Moses had plenty of help as four other Cowboys finished in double figures, including Muonelo with 12 points and 11 rebounds (his seventh double-double in 15 games this season). Byron Eaton contributed 14 points, 4 assists and 2 steals, while James Anderson finished with 10 points.
OSU senior Terrel Harris also scored in double figures with 11 points, but his biggest contribution to the win came on the other end of the floor where he held Texas A&M senior Josh Carter scoreless. The 6-7 Carter was averaging a team-best 13.9 points for the Aggies, and Harris shut him out for just the fifth time in 117 games during his college playing career.
"He did a great, great job of really denying Carter the ball and really paying attention to where he was," Ford said of Harris. "Terrel understood his role 100 percent. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Some nights Terrel's offense may not be there because we ask him to do so much on defense, and that was kind of the situation tonight."
The Cowboys have a week off before returning to play next Saturday when the travel to Waco, Texas to face the 23rd-ranked Baylor Bears, who improved to 13-2 with a Big 12 season-opening win over Texas Tech on Saturday.
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