NCAA Men's Basketball Scoreboard: Recap

Recap | Box Score | Today's Scoreboard

Oklahoma St. 66, Texas A&M 51

Posted: Sunday March 03, 2002 12:51 AM

Texas A&M Related Info: Team Page Conference Page City Page: • College Station Message Boards: • Texas A&M • Big Twelve

Oklahoma St. Related Info: Team Page Conference Page City Page: • Stillwater Message Boards: • Big Twelve

STILLWATER, Oklahoma (Ticker) -- Melvin Sanders scored 18 points and Victor Williams added 17 as No. 12 Oklahoma State posted a 66-51 Big 12 Conference victory over Texas A&M in the final regular-season game for both teams.

Oklahoma State (23-7, 10-6 Big 12) moved into a third-place tie with Texas Tech and Texas in the conference standings and the win was the Cowboys' fifth in their last six games. It marked the fifth straight season they have won at least 10 conference games.

"I told the seniors that 23-7 is a great regular season," Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. "Now we'll erase the record. Like everyone else, we're 0-0 going into the tournament in Kansas City." Fredrik Jonzen added 14 points for Oklahoma State, which scored the final 10 points of the game to pull away from the pesky Aggies.

"We are not disciplined to play the whole 40 minutes," Jonzen said. "We play great at the beginning of the first half and then let them come back. It comes out to being disciplined for the whole 30 minutes." Jesse King scored 17 points to lead three players in double figures for Texas A&M (9-21, 3-13), which has lost nine straight. The Aggies finished at 3-9 on the road this season.

The game was tied 50-50 with 7:21 left in the second half but Williams made a free throw 17 seconds later to put the Cowboys ahead for good and spark a 16-1 spurt.

The closest the Aggies got was 53-51 on a free throw by Keith Bean with 6:21 to play. Texas A&M missed its last eight shots of the game as it shot 38 percent (20-of-52) for the game.

"I thought our kids played hard but they cannot make the mental mistakes they did down the stretch," Aggies coach Melvin Watkins said. "At the end of the game, with the possessions we had, we just didn't make the plays." Oklahoma State led 23-7 with 9:20 left in the first half but Texas A&M rallied to score 17 of the game's next 21 points heading into intermission. King scored nine of those points for the Aggies.

"We played good at times," Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins said. "But it is just hard to manufacture offense sometimes. We did a good job except for the closing minutes when we just ran out of gas and lost our concentration." The Aggies committed 18 turnovers, leading to 26 points for the Cowboys.