Game Notes: No. 1 Texas 66, No. 9 Oklahoma State 59

 

TEXAS
Texas concluded Big 12 play with a 62-57 win vs Oklahoma State on March 9. By playing the Cowboys in their first Big 12 Championship game, it marks the first time since they joined the league that the Longhorns will face the same team in consecutive games.

 

Texas improved to 8-1 in Big 12 Championship quarterfinal games. The last three times the Longhorns won their quarterfinal game, they also won their semifinal game to advance to the final (2004, 2006, 2007)

 

All-Big 12 First-Team member D.J. Augustin and All-Big 12 Second-Team member Damion James and opened the game red hot from the floor. Combined they hit their first eight shots, including six 3-point field goals in scoring 23 of the Longhorns' first 30 points.

 

Augustin continued his stellar play of late with 24 points on 6-of-11 shooting including 5-of-7 on 3-point attempts, one off a Texas Big 12 Championship single-game record. In his last seven games he has averaged 23.7 points per game, shot 53.6 percent from the floor and 45.2 percent from the 3-point arc.

 

James finished with 23 points on 9-of-13 from the floor and 3-for-4 from the 3-point arc. In his previous five games against the Cowboys, he had averaged just 9.8 points per game, never scored more than 13 in any contest and had hit on just 2-of-8 3-point attempts. He scored 13 of his 23 in the first 10:07 of the game.

 

Augustin led the Longhorns in scoring for the seventh straight game. James' 11 rebounds led the team, the 12th straight game he has either led or shared the team lead in that category.

 

The Longhorns opened the second half on a 14-0 run spanning the first 6:28 of the second half, turning a one-point deficit to a 13-point lead. During the run, the Cowboys missed nine straight shots. The Longhorns held the Cowboys without a field goal in the second half until the 12:21 mark.

 

OKLAHOMA STATE
Freshman Ibrahima Thomas set one career-high and tied two others in the loss. He scored 19 points, bettering his previous best of 16, set twice, both against Texas Tech. He also connected on seven field goals, tying the mark he set at Texas Tech on 2/2/08. He also enjoyed his second multiple 3-point field goal game (2-for-3) of his young career (2-for-3 vs LSU on 11/19/07)

 

With nine assists, All-Big 12 Third-Team member Byron Eaton became the seventh player in Big 12 Championship history to accumulate 30 assists in career Championship play (31). He joins Doug Gottlieb (56, 1998-2000) and former teammate JamesOn Curry (30 assists, 2005-07) as Cowboys on this list. No other school has three players on with 30 career assists in Big 12 Championship play.

 

Eaton moved into the top 10 list in Cowboy history in assists. He has handed out 344 assists in his three-year career.

 

In three games against the Longhorns, the Cowboys averaged only 59.0 points per game, shot just 35.8 percent from the floor (64-for-179) and connected on 27.4 percent of their 3-point attempts (27-for-84) in losing all three contests by a combined 14 points.

 

Big 12 Championship Notes...
The No. 1 seed improves to 11-1 in quarterfinal games; the lone loss came in 2001 when the eighth-seed Baylor Bears defeated Iowa State 62-49 on 3/9/01 in Kemper Arena. The top seed is 5-0 vs No. 9 seed, 6-1 vs the No. 8.

 

Today's matchup marked the sixth time Oklahoma State and Texas have met in the 12-year history of the Big 12 Championship, tying Kansas-Kansas State and Missouri-Oklahoma as the most-played series in Big 12 Championship history. Texas leads 4-2.