OSU survives OU scare

By Associated Press     Jan 23, 2007

Oklahoma state guard JamesOn Curry, front, takes a shot under Oklahoma forward Taylor Griffin. OSU won, 66-61, Monday in Stillwater, Okla.

? It just wouldn’t have been the Bedlam game without a little last-minute craziness.

Byron Eaton scored a season-high 17 points, and David Monds added 11 points and 11 rebounds to help No. 13 Oklahoma State hold off a last-minute charge from Oklahoma for a 66-61 victory in the rivalry game Monday night.

“I’m glad it wasn’t like the Texas game,” said Eaton, whose Cowboys needed three overtimes for their last win against Texas last week. “I told everybody, ‘Just stay up three points. The worst thing that can happen is we can go into overtime.”‘

David Godbold and Austin Johnson sandwiched three-pointers around a pair of missed free throws by Oklahoma State’s JamesOn Curry to close a seven-point gap to 62-61 with 25.9 seconds left.

Mario Boggan hit two free throws after being fouled following the ensuing inbounds pass, and walk-on Tyler Hatch hit two more with four seconds to play after grabbing the rebound on a missed three-pointer by Johnson that could’ve tied it.

“We didn’t get as good a look as we would have liked to have gotten,” said Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, who said the Sooners were looking for their first open shot, not necessarily a three-pointer. “You have to credit their defense there. They played with a sense of urgency that possession.”

The Cowboys had started to inch away after Oklahoma (11-7, 3-3) had scored six straight points to close within 43-42 on Nate Carter’s fast-break layup. Eaton gave Oklahoma State a 55-46 lead with a floater on the left side that bounced off both sides of the rim before falling through the net.

It was 60-52 after Curry turned an offensive rebound into a layup, but then the Sooners, who’d hit only 3 of 19 from three-point range, started connecting from long distance.

Godbold hit a three to cut the gap to 60-55 and another after Monds answered with a jumper from the left elbow.

The rally came up just short, though.

“We had them down seven and then they got back within one, and then we had them down seven again. We were just trying to put it away, but they just kept coming back,” Eaton said.

“The big thing we did was we just kept the lead and didn’t let them get back on top.”

Kansas State 73, Chicago State 36

Manhattan – Jason Bennett set a Kansas State record with eight blocked shots, leading a stifling defensive effort that helped KSU rout Chicago State.

Cartier Martin came off the bench to score 25 points for Kansas State (14-6), which won its fourth straight game.

After Bennett’s eighth block of the game, he left to a standing ovation from the Bramlage Coliseum crowd with 1:03 remaining. He broke the old record of six blocks, which he tied earlier this season in a loss at California.

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