Stillwater, OK– K-States hopes of a conference championship now lie in the hands of the Baylor Bears. Oklahoma State ended the Cats hopes at an outright share of the Big 12 title with a 76-70 victory in Stillwater.
K-State trailed the Pokes 36-30 at halftime, and used a 20-5 run to take a 9 point lead midway through the second half. But through the efforts of Le’Bryan Nash and Marcus Smart, the Cowboys answered with a 12-2 run of their own to regain the lead over K-State.
Nash was solid all night scoring 24 points, and dominated down low for the majority of the game. K-State consistently gave up easy baskets to the Pokes, including Nash who was able to get a handful of easy dunks in the paint. Oklahoma State outscored K-State 36-24 in the paint.
K-State looked to be in control and on pace to their 1st Big 12 title, when McGruder buried a 3 in response to Marcus Smart alley oop which had cut the K-State lead to 5.
Nino williams, who scored 17 in the first meeting with the Cowboys, only managed 2 points in fifteen minutes on 1-4 shooting.
McGruder completed an old fashioned 3 point play with 4:45 to go, but K-State would not score from the field again until Spradling hit a three at the 20 second mark when the game was already out of reach.
