Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Northwestern State
Men's Hoops Rolls Past Northwestern St., 79-44
December 17, 2001 | Cowboy Basketball
Dec 17, 2001
By OWEN CANFIELD
AP Sports Writer
STILLWATER, Okla. - Maurice Baker did what his coaches told him and Northwestern State paid for it.
Urged by the Oklahoma State staff to shoot more, Baker scored all 22 of his points in the first half to lead the sixth-ranked Cowboys to a 79-44 victory Monday night.
Baker was 8-of-13 from the field and made five 3-pointers, then didn't take a shot in the second half. The Cowboys (10-0) didn't need him to, as they continued to build on their 17-point halftime lead.
"Tonight I was just feeling it," Baker said. "I told everybody I was going to come out and shoot the ball today and get some points, and I just came out and did that."
He had scored just five points on 2-of-7 shooting in the Cowboys' previous game, Dec. 8 against Jackson State. Coach Eddie Sutton and his assistants reminded Baker during last week's practices that he needs to shoot about 15 times a game for Oklahoma State to be effective.
"Sometimes, he gets where he doesn't really look to shoot the basketball," Sutton said. "I told him, 'That hurts your ballclub. We'd rather you shoot than some of your teammates.' I think he's done a better job of that."
Baker contributed in other areas as well - he had nine rebounds, five steals and four assists.
He scored 12 points during a 15-0 run that gave Oklahoma State control midway through the first half, after Northwestern State (2-7) got consecutive baskets from Alann Polk and Darnell Bradley to tie the score at 11.
He hit a 3-pointer in transition at the 10:30 mark, converted a three-point play 30 seconds later, then hit a 3 from the right wing with 8:49 remaining.
Victor Williams hit a 3-pointer from the right baseline to push the lead to 23-11, then Baker hit again from long range to make it 26-11 with 7:17 to play. Northwestern State missed all seven of its shots and committed two turnovers during the run.
The Demons cut the margin to 30-22 on a 3-pointer by Kory Wilson with just over a minute left in the half, but Baker sank a fade-away jumper in the lane and closed out the scoring with his fifth 3-pointer to make it a 37-20 at halftime.
"It doesn't happen very often where one individual outscores the other team, which he did in that first 20-minute period," Sutton said.
Baker was the only Cowboy with a hot hand. The rest of the team was 5-of-24 in the half and overall the Cowboys shot 38 percent.
But Northwestern State was even worse, making 25.8 percent from the field (17-of-66). Like Oklahoma State, the Demons had not played in nine days.
"I don't know if they were just edgy, but they just weren't in their rhythm or something because it just never seemed like we had good flow," coach Mike McConathy said. "When you don't shoot the ball well against a very talented team, you're going to have problems."
Fredrik Jonzen scored 17 points and Ivan McFarlin had 13 and nine rebounds for Oklahoma State.
Ryan Duplessis and Chris Lynch each scored eight points for Northwestern State, which has played every game away from home. The Demons have one more road game before finally playing at home on Jan. 3, against Stephen F. Austin.
