Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State Preview, 1st Ld-Writethru
February 07, 2005 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State is looking for revenge against No. 16 Oklahoma. Both teams are looking to keep their Big 12 title hopes alive.
The 10th-ranked Cowboys try to extend the nation's longest home winning streak to 27 games when they take on the Sooners on Monday in a key conference matchup.
Oklahoma State (17-3, 7-2) is in sole possession of second place in the Big 12 and Oklahoma (14-4, 6-2) is tied for third with Texas Tech. A third Big 12 loss would be damaging to both teams chances of catching No. 3 Kansas, which is 8-0 in conference play.
The Cowboys have the extra incentive of trying to avenge a 67-57 loss to their archrivals exactly two weeks ago. The Sooners were able to pull out the win thanks to a tremendous frontcourt performance led by forwards Kevin Bookout and Taj Gray.
Bookout made 11-of-15 shots for 23 points and Gray was 10-of-14 for 22 as Oklahoma emphasized its interior attack early. Bookout and Gray combined to score Oklahoma's first 19 points.
``They're both good inside players,'' Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. ``They can't score from beyond 15 feet I don't think, but boy, you let them get inside, and they're tough.''
Ivan McFarlin scored 16 points to lead Oklahoma State. John Lucas III, who averages 17.7 points, shot 3-of-13 for only 10 points.
Oklahoma State has won three straight since that defeat, including an 81-63 win at Baylor on Saturday. The Cowboys shot 74 percent in the first half and led by as many as 31 points, but were disappointed with their play over the final 10 minutes.
``We played well for 30 minutes and then had a total meltdown,'' Cowboys assistant coach Sean Sutton said. ``Look at the really good teams, when they get somebody down, they continue to play at a high level. When we got up 31, we shut it down and went on cruise control.''
Graham, averaging a team-high 18.4 points, hopes to bounce back after fouling out in 24 minutes with 12 points on Saturday. He is shooting nearly 62 percent over his last eight games.
Oklahoma has lost two out of three games since a 10-game winning streak. The Sooners had their streak snapped on Jan. 29 at Iowa State, rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat Texas A&M on Wednesday and suffered an 88-81 home loss to No. 25 Texas Tech on Saturday.
The Sooners allowed the Red Raiders to shoot over 57 percent from the field and surrendered their most points since a 96-91 loss to then-No. 22 Washington on Nov. 26.
``We have to turn around and get ready for a big game Monday,'' Oklahoma guard Lawrence McKenzie said. ``We can't hang our heads too long because we know we can bounce back.''
``Since the (OSU win), we've lost our spunk,'' Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson said. ``We need to find our way back. I still think this team has a lot of good games left in it.
``The way to get out of this is to control our effort and attitude. Those are two things we need to get better at.''
