Abou Ousmane scored 25 points on 7-for-11 shooting, and Oklahoma State held on for a 74-68 win over No. 9 Iowa State in a Big 12 Conference matchup Tuesday night in Stillwater, Okla.
Arturo Dean added 14 points for Oklahoma State (14-14, 6-11 Big 12), which bounced back from a 32-point loss against then-No. 23 Kansas in its previous game three days earlier. Bryce Thompson contributed 11 points and Marchelus Avery chipped in with 10 off the bench.
Joshua Jefferson scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead Iowa State (21-7, 11-6), which lost its second straight after winning the previous four. Nate Heise scored 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range, while Curtis Jones finished with 11 points.
Oklahoma State outscored Iowa State 22-9 in fastbreak points.
Midway through the first half, the Cowboys grabbed a 23-12 lead thanks to a 3-pointer from Ousmane. Jones, though, helped Iowa State pull back to within four points with 3:53 remaining in the first half with a made free throw on the heels of a layup from Jefferson.
However, Oklahoma State closed the half on a 12-2 run to grab a 14-point advantage.
Arturo Dean made two free throws to start the run. Avery followed with a 3-pointer and two free throws, and he drained another 3-pointer before Patrick Suemnick made a layup to finish the scoring to give Oklahoma State a 40-26 lead at the break.
Ousmane made a pair of free throws to increase the Cowboys’ lead to 16 points early in the second half before Iowa State responded with a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 42-35, capped by a layup from Milan Momcilovic.
With just over two minutes to play, Jefferson made another close look to bring the Cyclones back to within four at 66-62. But Thompson responded with a jump shot on the other end to push the Cowboys’ lead back to six points. Dean followed with a jumper to make it an eight-point lead with 54 seconds remaining.
Oklahoma State shot 42.4 percent (25 of 59) from the field and 26.1 percent (6 of 23) from 3-point range. Iowa State shot 41.4 percent (24 of 58) overall and 29.6 percent (8 of 27) from beyond the arc.
–Field Level Media
