Late game heroics by Marcus Smart again delivered a win for the Oklahoma State men's basketball team on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. The game split the series with Oklahoma, and evened the Bedlam Series for another year. But even more importantly it kept the Cowboys on pace for the Big 12 title.
The game was tied at 73 at the end of regulation, and the Cowboys emerged with a 84-79 win over the Sooners.
Heading into Saturday's games, Oklahoma State was tied with Kansas and Kansas State for the conference lead with three losses each. Both the Kansas schools had games Saturday night, so the Cowboys may still be sharing the lead after those games.
Marcus Smart scored 28 points to lead the Cowboys. He also blocked a 3-point attempt that could have tied the game again with 18 seconds left. Smart hit two more foul shots in the final seconds to finish the game. Le'Bryan Nash added a season-high 26 for the Cowboys. Markel Bown had 14 and Phil Forte added 10 for Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma started the game hot and led by 11 early. Oklahoma stormed back to get within striking distance at the half. The Sooners led by 11 in the second half, and led by five with time running out in regulation.
Romero Osby, Steven Pledger and Sam Grooms all scored 18 points each for Oklahoma.
Oklahoma leads the all time series 129-95. OSU is 61-42 in Stillwater.
After the game a relieved coach Travis Ford was happy with the win.
"I'm so proud of our basketball team. I've got a lot of respect for Oklahoma as well. They're a very well coached, very good basketball team. I thought that our kids showed a lot of heart. I think the fan support played a role this afternoon. Gallagher-Iba being rowdy again was a big key. I thought we just played hard. Oklahoma really punched us hard and played really well. We just made big plays down the stretch. That was the key. We made a couple of big plays in the first half when we lost the lead, and got it back a little bit. I'm very proud of our basketball team and how hard they played. What a great game. What a great game for the fans to see, and I hope they come back."
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