Cowboys Kick Off 76 Classic With Close Win

Neither team led by more than four points in the final 10 minutes, but clutch free-throw shooting gave OSU a win.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:03 pm

By: News On 6

Cowboys Kick Off 76 Classic With Close Win

Originally Published: Nov 25, 2010 7:18 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

ANAHEIM, California – In a game that was close from start to finish, the Oklahoma State Cowboys used clutch free-throw shooting to beat the DePaul Blue Demons 60-56 in the first game of the 76 Classic Thursday.

The teams went into halftime tied 27-27, and went back and forth for the rest of the day. Neither team led by more than four points in the game’s final 10 minutes, but OSU (4-0) took a 56-52 lead with slightly more than one minute left.

After DePaul (1-2) cut that lead to two, the Blue Demons began fouling to try to eliminate the lead. But Darrell Williams and Marshall Moses combined to make four consecutive free throws in the final 18 seconds to seal the win for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys finished the game shooting 17-of-20 from the charity stripe and went 9-of-10 in the second half. Moses carried OSU all night, making all of his free throw attempts and scoring a game-high 27 points.

"It wasn't pretty at either end," said OSU head coach Travis Ford in a statement. "Coach (Oliver) Purnell has a young team, trying to learn a new style, and they scrapped and played their hearts out. I thought we also scrapped. We had one player (Marshall Moses) that put us over the top. He scored when he had to score and he rebounded pretty well. When neither team is scoring a lot, you need to control the glass. We wanted to learn about ourselves in this tournament. This is a good learning lesson for us."

Keiton Page was the only other Cowboy who scored in double digits and finished with 11 points thanks to a perfect 6-of-6 at the line.

The Blue Demons had more even offensive output, with four players scoring in double figures. Mike Stovall led with 13 points, while Krys Faber, Jeremiah Kelly and Brandon Young scored 10 each.

The win gives the Cowboys four straight to start the season, and they will face the winner between Virginia Tech and Cal State Northridge in the second round of the 76 Classic Friday.