Oklahoma State rolls over Prairie View A&M 74-52
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — It isn't often a team wins by 22 points and its coach is seething with anger afterwards.
Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford held a closed-door meeting in the locker room for about 30 minutes after the Cowboys defeated Prairie View A&M 74-52 Sunday afternoon at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
"We won the game, that's about the best thing to come from it," Ford said when he finally met with the media. "I'm very unhappy with the performance. Our approach wasn't good. What we did in practice yesterday, we did not carry over to the game. What I told our team is that there are no easy games. Some teams are better than others, but there are no easy games, and how you prepare yourself to play will usually show in certain areas."
Phil Forte scored 17 points and had three steals, and Le'Bryan Nash had 15 points and seven rebounds, but it was three players off the bench that Ford said were the difference in the game for the Cowboys (2-0).
Jeffrey Carroll scored 12 points and had four rebounds, Tyree Griffin scored 11 points and Anthony Allen contributed six points, four blocks, and a career-high 14 rebounds.
"If the shooters were having a slow day, then me as a big man, and the other big men, just decided we would pick up the slack," said Allen, a junior who made his first career start. "And if they miss, then pick up the rebound and give us a chance to get another basket."
The Cowboys led 31-25 at the break but broke open the game by rolling out to a 20-4 run over the first 8-plus minutes of the second half.
"We basically just had to pick up our intensity and pick up our effort, and that's what we did at the start of the second half," Forte said. "Jeff came in and made some big shots, 'Big Ant' (Anthony) got us some good blocks and rebounds and we were able to get out in transition a little bit. Guys made a couple of big plays and we stretched the lead out a little bit."
Montrael Scott scored 16 points and added four rebounds to lead Prairie View A&M (0-2), while Tre Hagood had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
"We've got to keep things a lot simpler, doing your own job, and we kind of got out of it a little bit with the glitz and glamour of being in this nice gym," said Panthers coach Byron Rimm II. "We've got a young team, we have four freshmen, and I'm still happy with how they performed when their backs were against the wall."
Leading 31-25 at halftime, the Cowboys quickly extended their advantage to 13 points after Nash hit a free throw and Carroll connected on back-to-back 3-pointers just over 2 minutes in.
Nash then scored the next six points for Oklahoma State to make it 44-29 with 15:19 remaining, and when Forte sank a 3-pointer from the right side with 11:48 to go, the Cowboys held a commanding 22-point lead.
TIP INS
Oklahoma State: Senior Michael Cobbins sat out the third game of his NCAA-mandated four-game suspension for playing in two games during his redshirt season of 2010-11. He will be back when the Cowboys host Milwaukee on Friday.
Prairie View A&M: The Panthers committed just nine turnovers in their season-opening 71-54 loss at TCU Friday night, but had that many in the first half alone, and 15 overall. The Panthers shot just 3 of 16 from 3-point range (18.8 percent) and 20 of 61 overall (32.8 percent).
UP NEXT
Oklahoma State hosts Northwestern Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
Prairie View A&M visits Rice on Wednesday.
PIVOTAL MOMENT
Cowboys senior guard Marek Soucek left the game with 10:33 remaining in the first half after he was struck by an errant hand to the face by Prairie View's Delvon Rencher away from the play. With the score tied 10-10, Rencher was called for a flagrant foul, and Forte stepped in to sink both free throws, starting an 8-0 Cowboys run over the next 2 minutes. They never trailed again. Soucek sustained what Ford called a "mild concussion," and isn't sure if he'll be back in time for their next game.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Back in the day, when I played, after a performance like this, we'd be practicing in about 2 hours. Because of NCAA rules, we can't come back and practice tonight or we would be coming back to practice tonight." — Travis Ford, Oklahoma State coach