Cowboys Cruise Past TCU On Senior Night

Senior Marek Soucek earned the start in his final college home game. The 7-footer from the Czeck Republic hadn't scored a point all year and hadn't hit a 3-pointer since his sophomore season.

But on the game's opening possession, Soucek stepped up and drained one from deep. Yep, this was Oklahoma State's night.

Nine Cowboys scored as OSU cruised to an 82-70 win over TCU and put an end to its four-game losing streak.

Le'Bryan Nash led the Cowboys with 20 points and six rebounds in his final home start. OSU also got a big boost from point guard Anthony Hickey Jr. Hickey scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and dished out five assists. It was also Hickey's final game at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

On a snowy night where fans received free admission, it took a while for the Pokes to warm up. After Soucek's 3-pointer, the Cowboys didn't hit another field goal for more than eight minutes. Fortunately for them, TCU's lackluster offense couldn't take advantage, and Jeffrey Carroll's 3-ball at the 11:14 mark brought the Pokes to within one 9-8.

Both teams heated up a bit from there, and thanks to a 6-2 run to close the half, OSU took a 34-30 lead into the locker room.

The struggling Phil Forte began to heat up a bit and scored the Pokes' first seven points out of the break. Forte was held scoreless in last Saturday's loss at Texas Tech but scored 13 on TCU.

Tavarius Shine's 3-pointer at the 17:32 mark gave OSU its first double-digit lead of the night at 44-33. After that, it got ugly in a hurry.

The Horned Frogs went cold and OSU took advantage with a 13-0 run to put the game away.

Oklahoma State improves to 18-11 and 8-9 in the Big 12. The Cowboys play at West Virginia on Saturday, and with a win, would certainly lock up a trip to the NCAA Tournament. However, thanks to a plethora of solid wins and a lack of bad losses, it's likely that Wednesday's win over the Frogs sealed the deal.

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Kyan Anderson scored 23 points to lead TCU, which fell to 17-13 and 4-13 in conference. The Frogs close the regular season against Iowa State on Saturday.