Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Welcome Maryland For Sunday Showdown
December 18, 2014 | Cowboy Basketball
► Head Coach: Mark Turgeon (4th year)
vs.
Oklahoma State (9-1; 0-0 Big 12)
► Head Coach: Travis Ford (7th year)
Tickets: okstate.com/tickets or toll-free 877-ALL-4-OSU
TV: ESPNU (Dave Armstrong and Bryndon Manzer)
In Stillwater - Suddenlink 503, DirecTV 208, Dish 141, U-verse 605
In OKC - Cox 253/718, DirecTV 208, Dish 141, U-verse 605/1605
In Tulsa - Cox 253/HD 718, DirecTV 208, Dish 141, U-verse 605
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: Sirius/XM 91
Internet Radio: http://okla.st/osutunein
Live Stats: okstate.com
The Basics
The Oklahoma State men's basketball team (9-1 overall) hosts 17th-ranked Maryland (10-1) in a Sunday showdown in Gallagher-Iba Arena at 1 p.m. CT.
On the Air
The game will be televised by ESPNU with Dave Armstrong and Bryndon Manzer calling the action. The game can be heard on the Cowboy Radio Network with Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb on the call.
Oklahoma State From a Distance
OSU has rolled to double-digit wins in its last two games to improve to 9-1 on the season. It's the third-straight season the Cowboys have started 9-1 and marks the fifth time in seven seasons under head coach Travis Ford they've achieved that feat. The Cowboys started the season 7-0 for the second consecutive year, winning those first seven games by an average margin of 23.4 points per game.
Through 10 games, coach Travis Ford has fielded five different starting lineups and has gone deep into his bench, with 10 different Cowboys averaging 12 minutes played per game or more.
The Cowboys' lineup includes two of the Big 12's top-four leading scorers in senior Le'Bryan Nash, a 6-foot-7 forward, and junior Phil Forte, a 5-foot-11 guard. Nash is second in the conference with 17.7 points per game to go along with 6.4 rebounds per outing, while Forte's 17.1 points per game is fourth in the league and he ranks third nationally with a Big 12-best 30 steals.
Maryland From a Distance
Maryland enters Sunday's contest on a three-game winning streak and is 10-1 on the season. The Terrapins' lone loss was to No. 7 Virginia on Dec. 3. The trip to Stillwater marks Maryland's first road game of the season -- the Terps are 8-1 at home and 2-0 at neutral sites.
The Terrapins are without leading scorer Dez Wells, who has missed the last six games with an injury and is not expected back until later this month. However, head coach Mark Turgeon's team is scoring over 75 points per game, led by freshman point guard Melo Trimble's 15.8 points per game and junior forward Jake Layman's 15.4 points per outing.
An Oklahoma State Win Would...
► Be its 10th straight in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
► Be its 14th-straight win in a non-conference home game, dating back to 2012.
► Improve the Cowboys to 49-2 in non-conference home games under Travis Ford.
► Improve the Cowboys to 193-4 in non-conference home games, dating back to 1987. During that span, the Pokes won 80 straight over non-conference opponents in Gallagher-Iba Arena from 1987-98, which is the fifth-longest streak in NCAA history.
► Improve the Cowboys to 406-49 all-time in non-conference games played in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
► Mark the third consecutive year OSU has started 10-1 and the fifth time in seven seasons under Ford that the Cowboys have won 10 of their first 11 games.
Notable Streaks Entering the Maryland Game
► Oklahoma State has won nine-straight home games.
► The Cowboys have recorded 13 consecutive wins over non-conference foes in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
► The Cowboys have made at least one three-pointer in 462 consecutive games, dating back to Jan. 13, 2001.
► Le'Bryan Nash has started in his last 63 games - the 19th-longest streak in school history.
► Phil Forte has made at least one three-pointer in 15-straight games and 22 of his last 23 contests.
► Le'Bryan Nash has scored in double figures in nine-straight games (all of his games this season).
The Series
Sunday's matchup is just the second ever between Oklahoma State and Maryland on the hardwood. The first meeting came on Dec. 16, 1966, at the Memphis State Tournament in Memphis, Tenn., with the Terps picking up a 50-49 win.
Last Time Out - Oklahoma State 68, Middle Tennessee State 44
Oklahoma State picked up its first road win of the season with a 73-55 rout of Memphis. Some notes from that game:
►OSU shot over 50 percent from the field (51.1) for the fifth time this season while holding MTSU to just 31.1 percentshooting, the second lowest by a Cowboy opponent this year.
► The Cowboys outscored MTSU in the paing by a 32-8 margin.
► Le'Bryan Nash netted 16 points in just 23 minutes of action.
► Jeff Newberry came off the OSU bench to record 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting in 15 minutes.
Executing the Offense
Oklahoma State has converted on 48 percent or better of its shots from the field in seven of its last eight games, with the lone exception coming against South Carolina. The Cowboys are shooting 47.2 percent from the field in their last eight games.
Defensive Minded
Nine games into the season, Oklahoma State is establishing itself as a formidable defensive team. The Cowboys rank in the top 50 nationally in many of the prominent defensive statistical categories and are a top-20 team nationally in steals per game, field goal percentage defense and scoring defense. The Cowboys have held eight of their 10 opponents to under 39 percent shooting from the field and have allowed more than 68 points just once.
Dynamic Duo
There are several productive scoring duos throughout the Big 12 Conference, but only one packs a more explosive 1-2 punch than Oklahoma State's Le'Bryan Nash and Phil Forte III.
The Nash-Forte duo combines for 34.9 points per game and 44 percent shooting from the field. Iowa State's combo of Georges Niang and Bryce Dejean-Jones barely ranks ahead of Nash-Forte at 35.1 ppg.
For the Cowboy duo, it's a contrast of styles, with the 6-foot-7 Nash doing the majority of his damage inside and at the free-throw line, where he ranks 10th nationally in free-throw attempts (83) and sixth in free throws made (67). In Forte, the Cowboys have one of the nation's top long-range shooters who has drained 26 three pointers on the season and is shooting 36 percent from beyond the arc.
Nash has scored in double figures in all nine games he has played this season, including three 20-plus point efforts, while Forte has hit double digits in nine of 10 games and poured in a career-high 32 points earlier this month against North Texas.
Forte's 171 points this season are the most in the Big 12.
