No. 21 Cowboys Dunk Trojans
Oklahoma State was too big for Arkansas Little-Rock to handle.
Desmond Mason scored eight points during a 14-0 run in the opening minutes of the second half and No. 21 Oklahoma State beat Arkansas-Little Rock 93-64 Tuesday night.
Mason finished with 26 points, 16 in the second half. Fredrik Jonzen added 19 for the Cowboys (3-0).
"It was all lay-ups because Joe (Adkins) and Doug (Gottlieb) saw the switches and just gave me the ball inside," said Jonzen, who made 7-of-8 shots from the field. "It's easy to play against 6-5 and 6-6 players."
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Laverne Smith led the Trojans (0-1) with 17 points. Alan Barksdale had 14 points, but shot only 3-of-20.
"It was not the type of performance that you'll see the rest of the year," Moncrief said.
The game matched Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton against one of his former Arkansas greats, Sidney Moncrief, who was hired by Little Rock in March.
"It was a tough assignment having to play us," Sutton said. "We had a lot better players than they did. Where we really hurt them was our size."
A crowd of 10,518 turned out for the game on the new home court for the Trojans, the Alltel Arena, breaking the previous attendance record of 8,303 for the school.
Brian Montonati started the run for the Cowboys when he got inside for a basket that made it 51-42. On the run, Mason took a pass from Doug Gottlieb and stuffed it. Seconds later, Mason popped outside for a 3. Montonati added two free throws, Alex Webber contributed a dunk and Mason hit another 3 for 63-42.
Stan Blackmon's free throw ended the string with 14:02 left.
UALR's last lead was 9-8 on Barksdale's second 3 from way outside.
Mason drove hard, pulleup and hit a 15-footer to put the Cowboys in front. Glendon Alexander, who transferred from Arkansas to OSU, was booed by a few people when he entered the game but hushed them with an immediate jumper.
Montonati worked hard inside for a three-point play and then forced a bad pass that Gottlieb intercepted. Gottlieb fed it right back to Montonati for another 3-point play and an 18-10 lead.
Joe Adkins delivered a nice pass to Jonzen for a layup and the first double-digit lead 29-18. Jonzen added two free throws for a 13-point advantage. It was 47-40 at the half.
In the first half, the Cowboys had success spreading out UALR and then sending one of their big men cutting down the lane for a pass and easy shot. That's one reason they finished the first half with 19-of-27 from the field.
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