STILLWATER, Okla. — Kansas fell apart in the second half against Oklahoma State.
The No. 8 Jayhawks led by 11 at halftime, but Oklahoma State’s pressure defense held them to 27 percent shooting in the second half. Le’Bryan Nash scored 18 points to help the Cowboys upset Kansas 67-62 on Saturday.
“We just didn’t play very well,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “You can’t look at any individual on our team and say they had a good game. We had a couple guys make some shots, but we didn’t play very well. We didn’t coach them very well. We didn’t do anything very well today.”
Phil Forte, Oklahoma State’s leading scorer for the season, had the flu and was limited to 29 minutes. He finished with 13 points after throwing up before the game. Anthony Hickey added 15 points for the Cowboys (16-7, 6-5 Big 12), who have won four of the past six meetings in Stillwater.
Wayne Selden, Jr. scored 15 points, and Perry Ellis, Frank Mason III and Brannen Greene each added 10 points for the Jayhawks (19-4, 8-2), who had won five straight.
“I feel like we just didn’t execute like we needed to on the offensive end,” Ellis said. “That was it, really.”
Nash’s spinning left-handed layup put the Cowboys up 59-52 with 7:21 to play. Kansas rallied back, but a steal by Jeff Newberry led to a fast-break layup by Hickey that gave Oklahoma State a 65-61 lead with 2:32 remaining.
Nash missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 53 seconds left to give Kansas a chance, but the Jayhawks couldn’t score, and Hickey made a layup at the other end to make it a 67-62 game with 20 seconds to play.
Kansas led 16-13 when Nash was called for a charge, his second foul, with 10:52 left in the first half. With Nash on the bench, Kansas went on a 10-1 run to take a 26-14 lead. Kansas boosted its edge to 30-17 before the Cowboys rallied. Mitchell Solomon’s baseline jam on a nice find by Newberry cut Kansas’ lead to 30-24, forced a timeout and brought the crowd back into the game.
A 3-pointer by Greene in the final minute of the half put the Jayhawks up 41-30 at the break. Kansas shot 57 percent in the first half to overcome 11 turnovers.
“I didn’t think we were any good the first half, we just made shots,” Self said.
Oklahoma State opened the second half with a flurry. A dunk by Michael Cobbins cut Kansas’ lead to 42-38 two minutes in. A 3-pointer by Hickey cut Oklahoma State’s deficit to a point, Forte’s 3-pointer put the Cowboys ahead, and it was a game the rest of the way.
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