LAWRENCE, Kan. — Markel Brown let out a roar. Marcus Smart did a cart-wheel and a back flip.
Travis Ford exhaled for the first time all game.
After establishing a big first-half lead, Oklahoma State watched it all melt away Saturday. But in one of the rare instances of a team refusing to lose at intimidating Allen Fieldhouse, Brown and Smart managed to hold things together down the stretch against second-ranked Kansas.
Together, they helped the Cowboys pull out an 85-80 victory that ended the Jayhawks’ nation-leading 18-game winning streak — and their 33-game streak at the Phog, too.
“We just beat one of the top teams in the country, and a great team at that,” said Smart, who had seven of his 25 points in the closing minutes. “It’s hard for teams to come into their home court and get a victory. We’re one of the few teams that have done it. We couldn’t believe it.”
That may account for his impromptu gymnastics.
“I was so ecstatic about the victory,” the freshman said, “it just came to me to do it.”
Brown finished with 28 points for the Cowboys (15-5, 5-3 Big 12), who hadn’t beaten a top-5 team on the road since knocking off the Jayhawks on Jan. 2, 1958.
Oklahoma State stunned the Jayhawks by building a 14-point lead in the first half, but Kansas had pulled ahead 64-60 on a 3-pointer by Naadir Tharpe midway through the second half.
The Jayhawks still led by six when Phil Forte hit a 3-pointer from the wing with 4:15 left to begin a 13-2 charge, allowing Oklahoma State to seize control.
The Cowboys’ stretched the lead to 77-69 with 50 seconds remaining, but the Jayhawks (19-2, 7-1) managed to play savvy defense and take advantage of a couple missed free throws. Andrew White III’s 3-pointer made it 78-75, and his free throw made it 78-76 with 36 seconds left in the game.
Forte, an 89-percent foul shooter, made two at the line to restore a cushion, and White answered with two of his own. Smart added a free throw, and Johnson’s layup cut the Cowboys’ lead to 81-80.
Forte calmly made two more free throws with 7.9 seconds remaining, and Johnson turned the ball over near mid-court before Kansas could even get up a tying 3-point attempt. Forte got ahold of the ball and laid it in at the buzzer to punctuate the victory.
“This place here, it’s one of the greatest environments in college basketball, against a great basketball team,” said Ford, who had been 1-5 in his coaching career against Kansas. “We figured a way out to score a few points. Really proud of our effort.”
Forte finished with 11 points for the Cowboys, all of them in the second half.
Texas 60, TCU 43: Ioannis Papapetrou scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Texas over TCU 60-43 Saturday, as the Longhorns earned just their second Big 12 win of the season against the last-place team in the league.
Texas (10-11, 2-6) controlled the game throughout with suffocating defense that held TCU (9-12, 0-8) to 33 percent shooting. Sheldon McClellan added 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting for Texas.
Iowa State 79, Baylor 71: Will Clyburn notched his sixth double-double of the season with 28 points and 10 rebounds as Iowa State beat Baylor 79-71 on Saturday night in a tense Big 12 Conference game.
Clyburn, a senior, sank three 3-pointers on an uncharacteristically icy night from beyond the arc for the Cyclones (15-6, 5-3), who pulled into a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings.
West Virginia 77, Texas Tech 61: Freshman Eron Harris scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half to lead West Virginia over Texas Tech 77-61 on Saturday.
Harris hit 3 of 5 3-pointers in the second half to spark West Virginia after missing all four tries from beyond the arc in the first half.
Aaric Murray added 12 points for the Mountaineers (10-11, 3-5), who were 10 of 18 on 3-point attempts.
For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.
