Junior guard Terrel Harris blocked Texas A&M forward Donald Sloan’s layup attempt to solidify the Cowboys’ victory Saturday afternoon. The win marked the first OSU road victory in more than two years.
As the seconds ticked down in Oklahoma State’s game against Texas A&M, I couldn’t escape the feeling that something was going to go wrong.
After all, more than two years had passed since the last time the Cowboys had won their last road game. Was Saturday really going to be the day the streak finally ended?
As it turned out, yes. The Cowboys beat the Aggies 59-54, giving the team its first road win since a Feb. 4, 2006, victory at Kansas State.
“I’m just happy for our players, happy for our fans that they don’t have to hear about this losing streak anymore on the road,” coach Sean Sutton said on KSPI radio.
Just like that, two years of frustration flew out the door.
Yet lost in the sense of satisfaction and relief sweeping over the orange faithful is the fact that the Cowboys (13-12, 4-7 Big 12) ended their 19-game road losing streak in about the most unlikely manner imaginable.
The first road victory under Sutton wasn’t at Baylor, Iowa State or even North Texas.
The Cowboys were up against No. 16 Texas A&M (20-5, 6-4), who, with a five-game winning streak, was playing as well as anyone in the Big 12.
They were playing in front of 13,584 Aggie fans, the largest crowd to ever see a basketball game at College Station.
Reed Arena is considered one of the toughest places in the conference to play on a normal day, and the Cowboys went there on a day when the Aggies were honoring Acie Law, one of the greatest players in school history.
So surely that wasn’t the game where the Cowboys were going to end a 19-game road losing streak.
Surely something had to go wrong.
Instead, everything kept going right for the Cowboys.
They outrebounded the Aggies, who came in fourth in the nation in rebounding.
They held A&M to only 18 second-half points.
And perhaps the most maligned player during the Cowboys’ struggles, junior guard Terrel Harris, came up with the game-winning play.
With 38 seconds left and OSU up by two, Aggie forward Donald Sloan looked to have an easy layup to tie the game when Harris came out of nowhere to block the shot.
OSU got the ball back and the Aggies had no choice but to start fouling. A few free throws later, the Cowboys had won.
“I looked back and I seen the guy going up for the layup, and I thought to myself, ‘Here we go again,’” senior forward Marcus Dove said. “I didn’t even see Terrel till he blocked it. Terrel basically saved the game for us.”
Junior point guard Byron Eaton followed up his career performance against Baylor with a game-high 17 points and five assists against Texas A&M.
Eaton appears to be finally becoming the player Cowboy fans expected him to be, scoring and running the team with few mistakes, in addition to his already impressive defense.
Don’t look now, but the Cowboys are playing their best all year and are suddenly one of the hottest team in the Big 12 after winning three of their last four. Although OSU’s overall record isn’t too impressive, the team still has hopes of making the postseason.
“We talked to our guys at length after the Kansas State game that, at that time, we had seven games left,” Sutton said. “The mindset had to be that we’re going to try to win all seven to put ourselves in position to make the NCAA by finishing the season on a roll.
“We control our destiny in the way that if we win out, we’re going to put ourselves in a position where we have a shot.”
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