Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Texas A&M
Cowboys Hold Off Aggies, 76-69
January 27, 2010 | Cowboy Basketball
Jan. 27, 2010
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Obi Muonelo scored a season-high 24 points, James Anderson added 19 and Oklahoma State extended its home winning streak to 16 games with a 76-69 victory over Texas A&M on Wednesday night.
Oklahoma State (16-4, 4-2 Big 12) shot a season-best 57.9 percent and won its third straight game, a run that includes a road win over then-No. 10 Kansas State. The Cowboys overcame the absence of starting point guard Ray Penn, who has a stress reaction-type knee injury and missed his second straight game.
Donald Sloan scored 27 points to lead Texas A&M (14-6, 3-3). The Aggies are 1-4 this season in road games.
Oklahoma State won on the ninth anniversary of a plane crash that killed 10 men associated with the Cowboys' program. It was only the second time since the crash that Oklahoma State has played on the anniversary date.
Anderson, the Big 12's leading scorer, extended his double-figure scoring streak to 34 games, matching the second-longest such streak in school history. He also became the 10th Oklahoma State player to score 1,500 career points, ending the game with 1,518.
Anderson also had a career-high seven assists and six rebounds.
Anderson didn't score until the final two minutes of the first half. But Muonelo scored 13 first-half points, including the first eight for the Cowboys, as they raced to an 11-2 lead. His third 3-pointer put the Cowboys up 20-10 at the 7:41 mark, but Texas A&M closed the half on a 16-6 run to make it 26-26.
Texas A&M took its first lead on a basket by Bryan Davis 18 seconds into the second half. The teams swapped the lead five more times before a noticeably more aggressive Anderson took over.
Stuck behind the 3-point line with the shot clock running down, Anderson drew a foul from the Aggies' Dash Harris and converted two of three free throws. Then, after an A&M miss, he grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast, scoring on a driving layup. That put the Cowboys up 41-36 with 13:25 left and drew an immediate time-out from Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon.
Sloan hit a 3-pointer and a 2-pointer to bring the Aggies even again, but with the score tied at 43-43, Anderson keyed an 12-4 run by Oklahoma State with two free throws, an assist on a three-point play by Fred Gulley and a step-back 3-pointer over Harris. Marshall Moses' free throw gave the Cowboys a 55-47 lead with 7:37 left.
The Cowboys built the margin to 64-52 with 4:44 left and the Aggies came no closer than six points the rest of the way despite hitting three 3-pointers in an 18-second stretch in the final minute.
Keiton Page scored 16 points for Oklahoma State. Moses, who averaged 11.3 rebounds in the Cowboys' previous four games, had 11 as Oklahoma State posted a 30-19 edge on the boards.
Harris and David Loubeau each scored 14 points for the Aggies.
OSU NOTES
• Oklahoma State established a new school record for three-point percentage in a game tonight at 66.7 percent (12-of-18). The previous best with a minimum of 10 made treys was 15-of-23 (65.2 percent) against Northwestern Oklahoma State on Dec. 21, 2004.
• OSU shot a season-high 57.9 percent from the floor against Texas A&M, the highest percentage against a Big 12 foe since the Cowboys shot 58.5 percent (31-of-53) at Kansas on Feb. 27, 2005.
• Junior guard James Anderson dishced out a career-high seven assists against the Aggies tonight, tying the most by a Cowboy this season.
• Anderson's 19 points tonight give him 1,518 in his career, making him the 10th player in school history to surpass 1,500 points. He is just one point shy of Ronnie Daniel and ninth place on the career scoring list.
• Anderson has now reached double figures in 34 consecutive games, tying Richard Dumas for the second-longest streak in school history.
• Senior guard Obi Muonelo scored a season-high 24 points tonight, including a season-high six three-pointers.
• Junior forward Marshall Moses grabbed 11 rebounds against Texas A&M, his 10th double-figure rebounding game of the season and the 19th of his career.
• Freshman guard Fred Gulley started his fifth-career game and responded with a career-high eight points and played a season-best 30 minutes.
• Oklahoma State has now won 29 of its last 32 games when shooting 50 percent or better from the floor.
• The Cowboys have won 31-consecutive games when shooting better than their opponent.
