No. 24 Oklahoma State wins third in row, topping No. 16 Baylor

WACO, Texas (AP) — Le'Bryan Nash scored 22 points and Phil Forte had 16 of his 18 after halftime as No. 24 Oklahoma State rallied for a 74-65 win at No. 16 Baylor on Monday night, the Cowboys' third consecutive win over a Top 25 team.

It's the first time Oklahoma State (17-7, 7-5 Big 12) has won three straight games against ranked teams during a regular season.

Taurean Prince had 20 points for Baylor (18-6, 6-5), which had won three conference games in a row by at least 18 points since a 64-53 loss at Oklahoma State only two weeks ago. Rico Gathers had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Bears, his fourth consecutive game with at least 15 rebounds.

Forte had a short floater with 8:24 left to put the Cowboys up 58-47 before Baylor scored eight straight points, getting within 58-55 on a jumper by Prince.

Oklahoma State's nearly four-minute scoring drought ended when Forte made another 3-pointer from the left corner in front of his bench.

After going 3-for-15 from long range in the first half, Oklahoma State hit their first four 3-pointers after halftime to go ahead to stay.

The first was a four-point play by Forte, who was fouled by Royce O'Neale while making a 3-pointer. The Cowboys, who had trailed by eight points late in the first half, tied the game at 39 when Forte grabbed a long rebound on a missed 3 by Baylor and made another one.

Oklahoma State led when Anthony Hickey hit a 3 from the top left of the key, and Jeff Newberry's 3 from the right corner made it 45-41 and led to a Baylor timeout.

Newberry finished with 16 points and Hickey had 12.

The Cowboys made their last 3 before halftime, by Hickey in the final minute, giving them five in a row. They finished 9-of-24 (38 percent).

Baylor led 33-25 after Prince scored nine consecutive points in a span of 100 seconds, then had a bounce pass to Gathers for a layup.

Prince started the 11-2 run with two free throws with 4:55 left, then hit a 3-pointer, made a short baseline jumper while being defended and had a dunk with 3:15 left.

That spurt came after Oklahoma State had wiped out an early eight-point deficit with its own 11-2 spurt.

Hickey hit a 3-pointer from the left wing and Forte penetrated inside — among the bigger Baylor defenders — for a floater that put the Cowboys up 23-22 with just over five minutes left in the half.