2/1/03
No. 3 Texas 78, No. 9 Oklahoma State 65
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| James Thomas |
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)
-- Royal Ivey and T.J. Ford each scored 17 points and No. 3 Texas ended
(No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) Oklahoma State's 15-game winning streak
with a 78-65 victory Saturday.
James Thomas added 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Longhorns (14-3,
5-1 Big 12), who remained unbeaten at home this season.
Oklahoma State (17-2, 6-1) lost for the first time in two months. Victor
Williams scored 22 points for the Cowboys, who also got 15 from Tony
Allen.
The loss dropped the Cowboys out of sole possession of first place in
the conference. Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all have
one Big 12 loss.
The victory also was a measure of revenge for Texas, which had to watch
Cowboys players carry coach Eddie Sutton off the Longhorns' home court
last season when Sutton earned his 700th career victory.
Saturday's game was Sutton's 999th in the coach's box -- fourth among
active coaches -- but this one wasn't nearly as sweet for his Cowboys.
Texas shot 51 percent from the floor and outrebounded Oklahoma State
41-28 in snuffing out the nation's longest winning streak.
Before the game, the Erwin Center crowd of 14,804 observed a moment
of silence for the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew over
Texas skies earlier in the day. After the national anthem, a student
spirit group unfurled a large Texas Lone Star flag on the court.
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| T.J. Ford |
Texas led 38-36 after a first half in which both teams
shot better than 50 percent, neither led by more than five and the normally
reserved Longhorns fans were on their feet.
Texas opened the second half with a 10-2 run as the Cowboys suddenly
went cold, missing their first five shots. Ivey finished a fastbreak
with a running bank shot and Ford capped the spurt with an incredible,
twisting fall-away jumper to his left that made it 48-38.
The Cowboys started getting into foul trouble as starters Allen and
Melvin Sanders both had four fouls with more than 15 minutes left.
Texas bumped the lead as high as 63-48 with 7:29 to play behind Brian
Boddicker's shot clock-beating 3-pointer and Ford's short jumper. At
that point, the Cowboys were just 3-of-15 shooting in the second half.
Ford hit a 3-pointer that bounced twice on the rim and backboard before
falling in to put Texas up 68-54.
The Cowboys cut it to 69-63 with a 9-1 run capped by Allen's three-point
play with 1:20 left. Williams stripped Ford at midcourt and Ford fouled
Allen on the layup.
But that was as close as it got as Texas hit nine free throws down the
stretch to seal the win.
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| Royal Ivey |
TEXAS HEAD COACH RICK BARNES
ON THE CROWD SUPPORT FOR THE GAME …
“I thought our students were great this afternoon. They were here
an hour-and-a-half before the game and were ready to go. They really
got into it and stayed until the end. The whole arena supported us.
It was a great game against a team that we really respect.”
ON ROYAL IVEY’S PERFORMANCE …
“I told the team that I thought Royal (Ivey) played his best game
since he’s been here at Texas. He got it done on both sides of
the ball. He was great on the defensive end and played the most minutes
he’s played in a long time.”
TEXAS GUARD T.J. FORD
ON THE MINDSET OF THE GAME…
“I knew we were going to come out and play hard. It was real important
to compete for 40 minutes because we don’t want to lose two in
a row.”
ON THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE…
“They (OSU) didn’t give up. We had to play best on defense
and that is what we did. We played real well today.”
TEXAS GUARD ROYAL IVEY
ON BEING THE TOP SCORER…
“They (OSU) would give me driving lanes and I took advantage of
that by going to the hoop. I’m not the key scorer on the team –
anybody can put up points. I just went out there and made it happen.”
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| James Thomas |
TEXAS CENTER JAMES THOMAS
ON THE KEY TO WINNING…
“The main thing was blocking out and going to the board. One key
was to go out and rebound so that’s what we did.”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WIN…
“For us right now, this is a big win. We can use it as a backbone
to start up something good again like we had before the Kansas loss.”
OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH EDDIE SUTTON
ON THE GAME…
“I believe they are one of the best teams in the league right now.
At the half, I thought we had a really good chance for the win, but
we ended up having to play catch-up the entire game and could not get
over the hump.”
ON TEXAS’S REBOUNDING…
“In the second half of the game, they had all their big guys on
the court and did an exceptional job at rebounding. We didn’t box
out like we should have. James Thomas did a great job rebounding.”
ON THE CROWD…
“This was one of the best crowds we have seen here at Texas. They
were great and they played the part of the sixth man for the Horns.
The students were more active and I think that Barnes should feed them
more pizzas.”
OKLAHOMA STATE GUARD VICTOR WILLIAMS
ON THE GAME…
“We need to use the loss today to learn and understand that we
need to play Cowboy basketball for the rest of the season. We had foul
trouble and we need to use our other key players and work around those
errors.”
OKLAHOMA STATE FORWARD IVAN McFARLIN
ON THE GAME…
“We need to capitalize off the loss today and get back to winning.
James Thomas did a great job tonight. He fights for every rebound. I
think he is one of the best rebounders in the Big 12.”
