STILLWATER, Okla.—After Oklahoma State lost its second straight game, a double-digit defeat at Baylor, coach Travis Ford had harsh words about his team, even saying they played soft against the Bears.
Marshall Moses and the Cowboys took that criticism to heart. Moses had 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and matched his career high with 18 rebounds Wednesday night, and Oklahoma State never trailed while beating Colorado 90-78.
James Anderson, the Big 12 Conference’s leading scorer, scored 26 points and fueled a 10-2 run early in the second half that gave Oklahoma State (14-4, 2-2) a 15-point lead. Anderson, who went 11-for-13 from the free-throw line, has scored in double figures in 32 straight games, matching the third-longest streak in school history.
Alec Burks led Colorado with a career-high 24 points. Colorado (10-8, 1-3) has lost 31 straight conference road games since Feb. 5, 2006, when the Buffaloes won at Oklahoma State, and dropped 23 in a row on the road against NCAA Division I foes, dating to December 2007.
Moses led the way as Oklahoma State outrebounded the Buffaloes 38-23 to move to 10-0 this season at Gallagher-Iba Arena. He said he agreed with Ford’s assessment about the Cowboys’ performance at Baylor after watching the game on film.
“We were very soft,” Moses said. “… It was embarrassing, just to the game of basketball itself. We didn’t play hard. We didn’t play tough. We can’t let that happen, because that’s what basketball is all about, especially in this league.”
The Cowboys also shot a season-high 55.4 percent from the field, which Ford said was in part due to his team’s 18 assists on 31 baskets. Of Oklahoma State’s 14 wins this season, 12 have come by double digits.
“We shot the ball better, we ran our offense better, we passed the ball better,” Ford said. “We still have a ways to go offensively but it was good to see the numbers tonight, the percentages, the point totals. That’s a positive from where we’ve obviously been in the past and it’s something we’ve been trying to spend some time on as a coaching staff.”
Oklahoma State, coming off road losses to Oklahoma and Baylor, jumped to an 11-0 lead as the Buffaloes opened the game with five turnovers and five missed shots. Colorado cut the margin to 27-24 at the 4:46 mark but Oklahoma State led 37-30 at halftime.
“We got off to a very bad start,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said. “Just seconds into the game we throw the ball away. All we focused on heading into this game was not turning the ball over, defending with discipline and we had major breakdowns in both those areas early on in the game and periodically throughout the game. You can’t do that.”
With the Cowboys up 40-33, Obi Muonelo started a 10-2 run with a 3-pointer and Anderson finished it with another, making it 50-35 with 16:33 left.
Colorado cut it to 55-43 on a 3-pointer by Levi Knutson with 13:15 left, leading to a quick timeout by Ford, who came charging onto the court. The Cowboys responded with six straight points and Colorado came no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Muonelo hit four 3-pointers in the second half to help keep Oklahoma State comfortably ahead, finishing with 18 points. Keiton Page added 14 points for the Cowboys.
“We’re not going to shoot like that every night from the field but it’s good for us to get a good shooting night under our belt,” Muonelo said.
The Cowboys next will face a challenging four-game stretch, starting with a road game at No. 10 Kansas State and ending with a home matchup against No. 1 Texas.
“We just have to make sure our team is getting better, because where we were last week isn’t good enough to compete in this league,” Ford said.
Dwight Thorne scored 15 points for Colorado and Cory Higgins, the Buffaloes’ leading scorer this season, ended with 13 points, six below his average. Burks remained the only true freshman in Division I to score in double figures in every game this season.
