Oklahoma State University Athletics
Mason Leads Cowboys to Second Victory
July 18, 2003 | Cowboy Basketball
STILLWATER, Okla. -- Desmond Mason scored 16 points and pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds to lead Oklahoma State to an 86-70 victory over visiting Creighton tonight.
The Cowboys won their 72nd consecutive home-court non-conference game thanks to four players in double figures. Adrian Peterson and Brett Robisch tied for game-high honors with 17, while Mason and Joe Adkins scored 16 each.
"Creighton is a good basketball team," said OSU coach Eddie Sutton. "They never did throw in the towel; they just kept fighting back. I think at times we really played very good basketball, but then we'd have some lapses when we made mistakes, especially at the defensive end. The only thing that was negative on the offensive end was poor free throw shooting in the first half, which is a real mystery."
The Cowboys hit just 8 of 18 free throw attempts in the first half but hit 14 of 17 in the second period.
Creighton hung tough throughout the game, largely thanks to the efforts of freshman point guard Ryan Sears, who hit three three-pointers and scored 13 points.
"They played good defense, but we just didn't do a good job of handling the ball and made some weak passes," said Sears. "It was a lot of bad offense as well as good defense, so part of the blame is on us."
Bluejay scoring leader Rodney Buford had 16 points and nine rebounds but hit just 6 of 19 shots and just 1 of 6 three-point tries. Mason drew Buford defensively through most of the game.
"In the first half, I was more aggressive," said Mason. "I saw that, and Coach Sutton saw that. I came out the second half and kind of let him catch the ball. I got caught up on some screens, and he started shooting a little better than he did in the first half. But we played good defense on him tonight and the rest of the team."
OSU has averaged 94.5 points in its first two games, a far cry from last year's 69.4 average, the lowest at OSU in 20 years.
The Cowboys will next be in action Tuesday night when they play host to Southern Utah in a 7:05 p.m. start. Creighton visits Oral Roberts on Nov. 29.
