Vols End No. 15 Cowboys' Perfect Start

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl thought about benching Dane Bradshaw late because of the senior guard's injured right shoulder. Good thing he didn't. <br/><br/>Bradshaw scored

Monday, December 18th 2006, 10:53 am

By: News On 6

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl thought about benching Dane Bradshaw late because of the senior guard's injured right shoulder. Good thing he didn't.

Bradshaw scored on a putback with 1.9 seconds left, and Tennessee ended No. 15 Oklahoma State's perfect start by beating the Cowboys 79-77 Monday night.

``Ironically, he tipped it in with his right hand,'' Pearl said. ``He can't raise his arm to make a free throw. I thought about subbing him on injury. But how could you in that situation? And he made one.''

Bradshaw will have an MRI exam on both shoulders Tuesday, but it will likely show damage in his right shoulder, which he injured in New York last month at the NIT Season Tip-Off. He plans to keep playing if possible.

He was hurting enough that he missed a free throw that barely hit the rim with 2:55 left. He did make the second for a 75-74 lead and helped force a steal in the final seconds. And when Ramar Smith missed a shot, Bradshaw was there to tip it in.

``It hurt a little bit on the way up. But put me in game-winners from 2 feet away, and I got you all day,'' Bradshaw said.

Byron Eaton lobbed the ball downcourt, Mario Boggan caught it and threw up a last shot for Oklahoma State (11-1), but it bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

``I didn't get as good a shot as I thought I was going to get,'' Boggan said. ``We got a good look at the basket. Coach (Sean Sutton) drew up a good play. (I) just missed the shot.''

Oklahoma State came in with its best start since going 13-0 to start the 2001-02 season, but this was the Cowboys' first game in a week because of finals and their first without their third-leading scorer. Freshman guard Obi Muonelo broke his ankle in practice Saturday.

``We can't sit here and cry about it and make excuses, but he's a big part of our team,'' Boggan said. ``They pressed us. he's good at breaking the press, getting guys involved. We missed him a lot.''

The Volunteers (9-2) have only lost to No. 2 North Carolina and No. 16 Butler this season. They used their deeper bench and got the Cowboys into foul trouble early in a sloppy, physical game. It worked as they wore down Oklahoma State in the final minutes.

``We made too many mistakes. You can't beat a good basketball team on the road doing some of the things we did tonight,'' Sutton said. ``There's got to be more of a sense of urgency with our players in terms of taking care of the basketball.''

The Cowboys outshot Tennessee 54.5 percent to 41.8 percent, but the Vols forced 23 turnovers and turned them into 31 points. They also outrebounded Oklahoma State 37-35 and held the Cowboys to 15 shots in the second half.

Boggan finished with 20 for Oklahoma State. Terrel Harris scored 17, JamesOn Curry added 11 and Kenny Cooper had 11. Curry had only one assist with six turnovers.

Chris Lofton led Tennessee with 20. Freshman Duke Crews had a season-high 17 and JaJuan Smith had 14.

Curry fouled out after Lofton stole the ball from him as he tried to bring it upcourt with 2:48 left. Three other Cowboys, including Boggan, played with four each. Some of the players apparently talked some trash in the hallway outside the locker rooms, but coaches separated them quickly.

This is the second straight season the teams have played. Oklahoma State won 89-73 last year in Oklahoma City, and the rematch came in what the Cowboys kindly termed a ``semi-neutral'' court. It wasn't with 8,118 loud fans mostly dressed in orange.

``I know our fans up here in the Big Orange country, I know they appreciate we set this game here in Nashville and not in Knoxville,'' Pearl said.

Not the Cowboys.

``We had a tough loss, pretty much a home game for them,'' Harris said.

Oklahoma State never led by more than seven, and that was at 55-48. The teams swapped the lead six times with three ties in the final 6:29.

The Cowboys started sluggishly and didn't hit their first shot until 3:13 into the game on a bucket by Boggan.

Tennessee had no such problems, hitting six of its first nine shots, and the Vols led 16-6 early.

The Cowboys took their first lead with an 11-0 spurt capped by a bucket from Cooper. The teams swapped the lead back and forth before Harris scored on a layup with 4:13 to go for a 29-28 lead, and the Cowboys took a 43-37 lead into halftime.