Oklahoma State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Cruises over George Washington
June 21, 1999 | Cowboy Basketball
March 13, 1998
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Oklahoma State turned its matchup against a bigger George Washington into a board game and won.
The Cowboys combined a surprising 48-29 rebound advantage with quickness and claimed a 74-59 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament South Regional.
"They were bigger but we knew we could out-quick them," said Oklahoma State forward Adrian Peterson. "We used to our quickness to our advantage and picked our spots."
Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said rebounding was the focus in practice this week since George Washington was outrebounding teams by 5.2 a game. His Cowboys hold a 2.5 margin on opponents.
"We emphasized that we were quicker than they were," Sutton said. "And that proved to be true."
George Washington's 7-foot-1 center, Alexander Koul, guarded most of the game by 6-11 Brett Robisch, was never much of a factor in scoring just three points and taking down seven rebounds. He averaged 12.3 points and 6.8 rebounds.
"They are fast," Koul said. "They play hard and get to the glass."
Oklahoma State's quickness was the difference in a 10-0 run that turned back a George Washington rally in the second half.
Oklahoma State (22-6), improving its record to 14-1 in tourney openers, had its 33-23 halftime lead whittled to 34-33 when George Washington (24-9) hit its first four shots.
Peterson then scored on a layup off a fast break and, following George Washington turnovers, hit an 18-footer and made two free throws. Joe Adkins capped the spurt by sinking four foul shots to give Oklahoma State a 44-33 lead with 15:58 left in the game.
"People make too much out of numbers on paper," George Washington coach Mike Jarvis said. "What is more important is getting to the ball first. They got to the ball first and we didn't. I hope that doesn't mean they wanted it more."
George Washington could get no closer than 53-46 on J.J. Brade's driving layup at 8:27. Peterson hit a 10-footer and layup as eighth-seeded Oklahoma State scored eight straight points for a 15-point lead with 4:55 left.
Oklahoma State, using its quickness to attack the inside, was led by Peterson with 23 points, Adkins with 14 and Robisch and Desmond Mason with 13 each. Mason also pulled down 13 rebounds in picking up the eighth double-double of his career.
Shawnta Rogers, a 5-4 guard, scored 19 points and Mike King added 12 for George Washington, the region's ninth-seeded team.
The Cowboys will play the Duke-Radford winner in Sunday's second round.
Sutton, who coached at Kentucky from 1985-89 and resigned during the end of an NCAA investigation, received a loud round of boos when introduced before the game.
George Washington led 5-2 on Rogers' 3 from the corner with 17:47 in the half before Oklahoma State went on a 14-2 run to lead 16-7 six minutes later. Six of the points came off turnovers as George Washington's bigger lineup had problems contending with Oklahoma State's defensive quickness.
George Washington battled back, slicing the lead to 16-12 on Rogers' 3 from the left wing and Francisco de Miranda's layup at 10:19.
George Washington trailed by just 10 points at the half despite being outshot 52 percent (14-of-27) to 29 percent (8-of-28) as Oklahoma State missed 7-of-11 free throws.
Oklahoma State shot 46 percent (26-of-55) for the game while George Washington made 38 percent (21-of-56), including 8-of-18 from 3-point range to Oklahoma State's 1-of-10.
George Washington ended with 15 turnovers that Oklahoma State converted to 26 points. Oklahoma State turned the ball over 12 times.
Oklahoma State Men's BasketballPostgame Notes
NCAA Tournament First Round
Oklahoma State 74, George Washington 59
* OSU is now 14-1 in its opening NCAA Tournament games. The Cowboys' only first-game loss in 15 NCAA appearances came in 1983. The Cowboys are now 26-13 in their NCAA Tournament history and 11-5 in NCAA Tourney games under Eddie Sutton.
* Adrian Peterson has scored 132 points in his last six games (22.0 ppg). With one full season left in his career, he is 11th in OSU scoring history (1,251 points).
* OSU's 45.5 field-goal percentage tonight was the Cowboys' best in a game since they shot 47.3 percent in a victory at Iowa State on Feb. 9. Conversely, the Cowboys shot 62.2 percent from the foul line, the lowest charity percentage since the Cowboys shot 54.2 percent in defeating Texas Tech on Jan. 10.
* Desmond Mason's 13 rebounds are one shy of his career high and give him eight double-doubles this season and in his career.
* The Cowboys have not committed more turnovers than they've forced in any single game since the loss at Missouri on Jan. 14. The streak now covers 14 games.
* Brett Robisch has not recorded a double-double since the Colorado game Feb. 3, but tonight's game marked the fourth time in that stretch that he has scored in double figures and pulled down nine rebounds.
* Robisch has started 55 straight games. Peterson's starting streak stands at 54 games, and he has started 85 of the 87 games in his Cowboy career.
* Eddie Sutton is now 1-1 in Rupp Arena games since he came to Oklahoma State. Sutton, who coached at Kentucky from 1986 to '89, also led the Cowboys into an NCAA Tournament game here in 1992. The Byron Houston-led Cowboys fell to Michigan's Fab Five in a Sweet 16 game, 75-72.
