Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

STILLWATER, Okla. - A steady parade to the free-throw line in the second half and a 22-point margin in rebounds carried the Oklahoma State Cowboys to a 69-57 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears on Wednesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

After not making a free throw in the first half (0 for 1), the Cowboys (6-1) converted 18 in the second half, including 15 in the final 4:30, to hold the Bears at bay. For the game, OSU was 18 of 26 from the line and won despite hitting only 1 of 12 from 3-point range and turning the ball over 19 times.

OSU junior guard Keiton Page scored a team-high 17 points, hitting 10 of 10 from the line. All 10 of those came in the final four minutes as the Bears were trying to make up as much as a 15-point deficit.

“We knew we didn’t want to put them on the free-throw line," said UCA coach Corliss Williamson. “We did a good job of that in the first half but we kind of relaxed on defense a little in the second half and started reaching and fouling. We sure didn’t want to foul Page, but we did and he made us pay.’

The game, which was only six points at halftime, got away from the Bears (2-4) midway through the second half as the Cowboys went on a 13-5 scoring run and took their biggest lead of the game to that point, 12 points, with 8:15 remaining. But UCA freshman guard Ryan Williams nailed consecutive 3-pointers from the right wing to bring the Bears back within six at 52-46 with 5:42 left, forcing an OSU timeout.

“Ryan has done that a couple of times for us this year," Williamson said. “He’s a kid who’s demeanor is really calm, he doesn’t go up and down with the game. He just plays the game. He’s hit some big shots this year.

"I kind of got a little frustrated there, I thought we probably should have gone to him some more after he hit those two. That’s something we have to work on as a team. When we have a hot one, we have to figure out as a team how we’re going to get him the ball."

After play resumed, the Cowboys responded with three free throws and a length-of-the-court layup by Page to push the lead back to 11 at 57-46 with 4:02 to play. Page made four consecutive free throws, 10 straight points in all, to give OSU a 61-46 lead with 2:37 left. Henson made a long 3-pointer and a free throw but Page made two more at the line to keep the lead at 13.

UCA got to within nine points once more on TK Smith’s 3-pointer with 37.7 seconds to play.

“You let a good team like Oklahoma State off the ropes and they get back into the game, it’s tough to overcome that," said Williamson. “Coach [Travis] Ford has his team very prepared and ready to play. They are very disciplined in what they do and they handled their business and did what they were supposed to do in the second half."

The Bears stayed even with the Cowboys for the first nine minutes of the first half and trailed only 17-16 after junior Mark Rutledge hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 5:50 left in the half. The Bears then had to survive an 8-0 Cowboy run late in the first half that put them behind 25-16 with 3:30 remaining.

UCA answered that with a 5-0 run of its own as junior forward Tadre Sheppard put in a rebound and junior guard Dewan Clayborn followed with a three-point play on a drive and free throw that closed the gap to 25-21 with 2:37 left.