Oklahoma State 85, Kansas 80
LAWRENCE, Kan -- The odds were stacked against Oklahoma State.
No. 2 Kansas was on an 18-game winning streak and undefeated in the Big 12. In addition, the Jayhawks were in Allen Fieldhouse, where they had won 33 straight games and beaten the Cowboys 16 consecutive times.
Well, upsets do happen. Markel Brown scored 28 points and Marcus Smart added 25 as Oklahoma State stunned Kansas, 85-80, in a Big 12 Conference game on Saturday.
The Cowboys (15-5, 5-3 in the Big 12), the best free shooting team in the Big 12 at 75.1 percent, went 10-for-12 from the line over the final 1:12 to salt away the victory.
The first of those trips to the line was by Smart, who nailed two free throws to give Oklahoma State a 75-68 margin.
Kansas (19-2, 7-1) crawled to as close as 81-80 on a drive by Elijah Johnson with 18 seconds left, but Johnson committed a turnover on the Jayhawks' last possession when they were down by three.
The road victory was the first of the season for the Cowboys. They had lost eight straight on the road dating to last season, as well as 22 of their previous road games in the Big 12.
The Jayhawks actually recovered from a 14-point first-half deficit to go ahead by four with 8:05 left. They were led by freshman guard Ben McLemore, who scored 23 points.
Brown started the game on fire, hitting his first five shots from 3-point range and netting 22 first-half points. That helped spot the Cowboys a 40-34 edge at the break.
The margin could have been more.
Oklahoma State led by as many as 14 as Smart added 10 first-half points. The Jayhawks scored only one field goal over a span of seven-plus minutes before McLemore scored on a nifty drive with 9:13 left.
Withey led Kansas with nine first-half points, despite getting tagged with two fouls and playing only 12 minutes.
NOTES: The game was the third for Phil Forte since the freshman guard changed his Oklahoma State uniform number from 10 to 13. He has scored 54 points over that stretch. ... Senior center Jeff Withey had three blocked shots, boosting his career total to 254, four short of the Kansas career record held by Greg Ostertag. ... Kansas senior guard Travis Releford failed to score in double figures for the first time in 18 games.
