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No. 11 OK State holds off West Virginia

Jan 25, 2014 - 11:05 PM Stillwater, OK (SportsNetwork.com) - Le'Bryan Nash scored 29 points and No. 11 Oklahoma State beat West Virginia 81-75 on Saturday.

Markel Brown, who made a game-winning 3-pointer to lift the Cowboys over the Mountaineers 73-72 on Jan. 11 in Morgantown, scored 15 in this one, including two on a highlight-reel dunk in the first half.

Oklahoma State (16-3, 4-2 Big 12) bounced back from a loss last Saturday at Kansas and picked up its 12th straight home win.

Eron Harris had 21 points and Juwan Staten scored 19 to lead West Virginia (11-9, 3-4), which has dropped four of its last five.

Oklahoma State leads the all-time series 4-1, with all four wins coming in Big 12 games. West Virginia's only win over the Cowboys came in 1958 in a neutral-site meeting in Lexington, Ky.

Brown stole a long Mountaineers pass at midcourt, dribbled to the left side of the paint and took off for a one-handed 360 dunk that tied the score at 48-48 with under 14 minutes remaining.

It was the seventh tie in a game that never saw a double-digit lead.

"That was more like a football game," said Cowboys coach Travis Ford. "That was a really rough, physical game."

Oklahoma State took the lead for good on a Nash's layup and three-point play with 7 1/2 minutes left but it was never safe. Nash's points began a personal 8-0 run for a 68-60 Cowboys advantage inside six minutes.

The lead reached a game-high nine points soon after that but Harris made consecutive 3-pointers for West Virginia, cutting it to three. Brown made a layup at the other end and Oklahoma State built its lead back up to eight with two minutes remaining.

West Virginia got within three points twice after that but the Cowboys made all six of their free throws in the last 36 seconds to hang on.

Nash fouled out with 1:40 remaining. Four West Virginia players fouled out, including Harris with 3:35 left.

"We kind of let it get away from us at the end of the first half, but then we came back. We got back in the game," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. "You know, it's hard when we lose Eron. Eron gets 21 in 21 minutes, so losing him for us is like (Oklahoma State) losing Marcus Smart."

Nash scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half and the Cowboys led 42-35 at the break.

Game Notes

There were 10 ties and nine lead changes in the game ... Phil Forte scored 13 points for Oklahoma State ... Brown pulled down 10 rebounds Nash had nine ... The Cowboys play at Oklahoma on Monday ... The Mountaineers are at Baylor on Tuesday.