Big 12 Conference Tournament Opening Round:No. 9 Oklahoma nearly blew a big first-half lead against No. 8 Iowa State but held on to win 68-63 and move on to the quarterfinals against No. 1 Kansas. Nate Carter led the Sooners with 22 points, and he hit two free throws in the final seconds to ice the victory for Oklahoma. Iowa State made the game interesting after digging out of a 14-point hole to take the lead in the second half. But Oklahoma regained the lead on a putback by Carter, then held Iowa State without a basket for four minutes.
No. 5 Texas Tech may have ended the talk that the Red Raiders are on the bubble by taking care of No. 12 Colorado 81-71. Martin Zeno delivered a career-best 28 points for Texas Tech, including 13 points in the final five minutes to help the Red Raiders ensure that they wouldn’t let the game slip away. Texas Tech will play No. 4 Kansas State in the semifinals. Colorado, meanwhile, will start searching for a new coach as Ricardo Patton ended his tenure with the Buffaloes. The school announced early in the season that it would not retain Patton.
It wasn’t pretty, but No. 7 Oklahoma State avenged a loss to No. 10 Nebraska earlier this week. Despite the victory, the Cowboys have a long way to go to climb back into the at-large pool after ending the season without a true road win. The conference tournament victories count as neutral court wins, but every little bit will help. Senior Mario Boggan led Oklahoma State with 11 points, one of only two players from either team to score in double figures. The Cornhuskers shot an embarrassingly bad 27.7 percent from the field.
No. 11 Baylor was on fire all night, shooting 63 percent from the field, to spur a 97-83 victory against No. 6 Missouri. Sophomore Curtis Jerrells had 31 points and Henry Dugat added 25 points for the Bears. The two shot 21-of-28 — 75 percent — from the field and added eight free throws. Baylor built a 13-point halftime lead and held off Missouri in the second half. [3/08/07]
