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Oklahoma State outlasts West Virginia

Jan 12, 2014 - 7:29 AM Morgantown, WV (SportsNetwork.com) - Markel Brown buried his first 3-pointer since Dec. 17 with 11.9 seconds left to lift the No. 11 Oklahoma State Cowboys to a 73-72 win over West Virginia on Saturday.

Oklahoma State trailed 72-70 when Marcus Smart rushed the ball up court, kicked it to Brown, who pump faked to get the first defender in the air and buried the 3 that proved to be the game winner.

Smart finished with 22 points to go along with a career-high 13 rebounds for the Cowboys (14-2, 2-1 Big 12), winners in two straight following a 74-71 road loss to Kansas State.

Le'Bryan Nash tallied 18 points with six rebounds, while Brown added 12 points and seven rebounds.

"This West Virginia unit is a really good basketball team," said Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford. "We have been telling our guys over the last two days how improved the Mountaineers are this season. They play tough and physical."

Terry Henderson paced West Virginia (10-6, 2-1) with 21 points. Juwan Staten added 20 points and Devin Henderson recorded a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Mountaineers.

"We're close," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. "Our problem is that we have a whole bunch of freshmen who don't understand that when you stop playing hard that people take advantage of you. When you stop playing hard then they do that."

Oklahoma State led 67-65 when Staten made a driving layup to tie the game with 4:24 left.

Kamari Murphy made the first of two free throws to break the tie, but missed the second and Smart grabbed the offensive rebound to keep the possession alive.

Smart got the ball back and missed a corner jumper, but the ball went off West Virginia player during a scrum on the baseline as the Cowboys maintained possession going into the under four media timeout.

Smart gained position inside out of the timeout, grabbed Nash's miss, and converted a layup on Oklahoma State's fourth attempt of the sequence.

Staten then drove the lane and dropped it off to Williams, who made an easy layup to cut the deficit to one, 70-69.

Henderson later buried a 3 with 1:14 left to give the Mountaineers their first lead since the 11:55 mark of the second half before Brown silenced the crowd at the Coliseum with his wing 3.

Staten rushed the ball up court and got a nice look at a layup, but his attempt was off the mark and the Cowboys recovered the rebound with 0.6 seconds left to end it.

Earlier, Remi Dibo made a 3 to stake West Virginia to a 32-24 lead, but the Cowboys tied the game at 37 before Staten found Williams inside for a layup as time expired in the first half.

Game Notes

Oklahoma State shot 45 percent (27-of-60) from the field ... Staten added eight assists ... Eron Harris, West Virginia's leading scorer at 18.5 points per game, scored 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting ... Phil Forte had nine points on 3-for-8 shooting from deep ... Oklahoma State hosts TCU on Wednesday ... West Virginia welcomes Texas to Morgantown on Monday.