Oklahoma State University Athletics
Men's Hoops Downs Iowa State
June 21, 1999 | Cowboy Basketball
February 2, 1999
By OWEN CANFIELD
AP Sports Writer
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) - Oklahoma State's balance was enough to offset the dominance of Iowa State's Marcus Fizer.
Fizer, the Big 12's leading scorer with a 17.5 average, had a career-high 32 points Tuesday night but Oklahoma State came away with an 81-72 victory.
Adrian Peterson had 18 points - 16 in the second half - and nine rebounds for the Cowboys, who beat Iowa State for the tenth straight time in Stillwater. Brian Montonati and Desmond Mason scored 14 and Glendon Alexander had 13.
"That's the most points we've given up all year, the highest percentage we've given up in a long time," Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy said. "We just couldn't guard them."
Iowa State (13-9, 4-5 Big 12) had been holding opponents to 59 points and 40 percent shooting. But the Cowboys (16-5, 7-2) shot 56 percent in the first half and 52 percent for the game. They had gone 10 games without shooting 50 percent.
"I thought at times tonight we played as well as we've played all season," coach Eddie Sutton said. There still were stretches when the Cowboys played poorly at both ends of the floor, "But I'm happy we won because I thought there were some real signs of our team getting better."
Montonati, coming off a career-high 16 points against Texas A&M on Saturday, scored 12 of his 14 in the first half when the Cowboys opened as much as a 17-point lead. He picked up three fouls in the final 2:31 of the half and played just nine minutes in the second half before fouling out.
Peterson was 0-of-3 from the floor with two free throws in the opening 20 minutes, but was 6-of-10 from the field in the second half.
"I don't know about taking charge," Peterson said of his second-half performance. "I was just trying to get off the slide, just trying to put some points on the board to get my confidence going."
Oklahoma State opened 15-point leads twice early in the second half, the second time 50-35 on two free throws by Joe Adkins. A 9-2 run by the Cyclones made it 52-44, but Peterson scored twice to key a 7-2 Cowboy spurt and stretch the margin to 13, 59-46, with 11:40 to play. Iowa State got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
"I thought, really, offensively we played pretty well," Eustachy said. "We shot 47 percent, only had 16 turnovers being pressed all night, got to the line 19 times, outrebounded them. Our problem was at the other end. We couldn't guard 'em."
Fizer, the league's leading scorer with a 17.5 average, hurt the Cowboys inside and outside.
He scored 19 in the first half while none of his teammates scored more than three. He made a shot in the lane that got Iowa State to within 15-13 before Oklahoma State went on a 23-8 run. Montonati had 10 points and an assist during the spurt, which gave the Cowboys a 38-21 lead four minutes before halftime.
Fizer then scored the first six points of a 9-0 run that got the Cyclones to within 38-30, but Oklahoma State outscored them 5-1 in the final 1:02 to take a 43-31 halftime lead.
Fizer's previous career high was 30, earlier this season against St. Mary's, Calif.
Stevie Johnson had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Cyclones.
