Oklahoma St. tops Huskies
STILLWATER, Okla. – James Anderson’s high school coach ate breakfast Saturday with members of Oklahoma State’s basketball team, then gave his former star some advice.
“He just said, ‘Do what you do,’ ” recounted Anderson’s teammate Terrel Harris, noting that Anderson “has a knack for scoring.”
Anderson apparently listened well. He continued his early-season string of strong performances, scoring 22 points as the Cowboys rolled past Washington 96-71 in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.
Oklahoma State (3-3) shot 58.2 percent from the field as the Cowboys moved to 26-25 all time against teams from the Pacific-10 Conference. That includes an 8-3 mark against Washington.
Washington (4-3) led only twice, both times in the first half, and proved unable to stop a barrage of 3-pointers by Oklahoma State that gave the unranked Cowboys control of the game. Oklahoma State finished 11 of 21 from 3-point range, a 52.4-percent clip.
In losses last week to Marquette and Illinois in the EA Sports Maui Invitational, the Cowboys shot 39 percent and 30.6 percent from the field, respectively, and went a combined 12 of 46 from 3-point range.
By contrast, the Cowboys’ 11 3-pointers were a season high.
“Everybody shot well today because all of us were in the gym at night at one point or another this week,” Oklahoma State point guard Byron Eaton said. “(Coaches) just told us to shoot with confidence. Coach told us that we need to start making teams play from behind. We are always trying to play catch-up, but (having a lead) helped us out a lot.”
Jon Brockman scored 22 points and added 13 rebounds for the Huskies, whose previous losses this season came to ranked foes, Texas A&M and Syracuse, in the Preseason NIT. He left briefly early in the second half after taking an inadvertent blow to the jaw, but quickly returned. Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said he thought Brockman would be OK.
On a day when Oklahoma State hosted about 65 former players who played for legendary coach Henry Iba – including some members of the school’s 1945 and 1946 NCAA championship teams – at Gallagher-Iba Arena, the Cowboys continued watching the emergence of Anderson, who is giving indications he could be the program’s newest star.
The 6-foot-6 forward from Junction City, Ark., has reached double figures in scoring in each of Oklahoma State’s first six games and has scored more than 20 points three times, against Prairie View A&M, Louisiana State and Washington.
“I know that he’s still a freshman, but he’s not your normal freshman,” Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton said of Anderson. “He’s going to score a lot of points most nights because he’s a gifted offensive player. I thought our guys did a good job in the first half of looking for him.
“I’m really pleased with my team and how they played today. That was a great effort and a really important win. That was a really good basketball team we beat today.”