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Oklahoma State Beats Towson to Move to 3-0

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This is a guest post by Sean Bennett.

Without Leyton Hammonds (pneumonia) out for the weekend tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, Oklahoma State saw two starters injured in a 69-52 win over Towson in the quarterfinals of the Gildan Charleston Classic on Thursday afternoon.

Senior Phil Forte went down with a hyper-extended elbow with just over five minutes left in the first half after diving for a loose ball. Forte was assisted directly to the locker room, where he didn’t return for the rest of the half. According to team reports, X-Rays came back negative, and Forte was seen heavily taped on his arm at the beginning of the second half.

Forte played the first five minutes of the second half before exiting for good, whether that was because the Cowboys’ commanding lead at the time or because of the injury has yet to be seen. Forte shot 2-6 and scored six points in his limited action.

Later in the game, with the Cowboys up double-digits, Senior Jeff Newberry seemed to be bothered after falling on his elbow but remained in the game until with just over six minutes remaining on a dunk he landed on that same arm/elbow after slipping, forcing him to the locker room.
It’s never a good sign for your team when the announcer is quoted as saying “the Oklahoma State bench is starting to look like a MASH unit.”

Jeff Newberry did not return to the game after suffering the injury, no update has been available about his or Forte’s status for tomorrow’s game.

Now, onto how the game itself was commanded by the big men of Oklahoma State. Senior Chris Olivier had his best game as a Cowboy, scoring a game-high 18 points on 6-11 shooting. It was good decisions in his post moves that made the difference, including a nice juke of his defender where he faked dishing the ball to the three-point line and kept it himself, scoring to initiate another Cowboys scoring run.

Anthony Allen Jr. had a career day as well, using his height to garner a career-high 6 blocks in his first start of the season. Jeffery Carroll used his sharpshooting to help the Pokes get their third win of the season as well; he made seven of nine shots, allowing him to score 17 points on the day.

Oklahoma State held Towson to just 25 percent shooting on the day, while blocking nine shots and getting two steals. Oklahoma State ended the first half with one turnover, finishing with seven en route to a big victory. OSU is now 59-3 in their last 62 games when holding an opponent under 60 points.

Oklahoma State will play George Mason in the semi-finals at noon on Friday, to be broadcast either on ESPNU. George Mason upset Ole Miss on Friday by a score of 68-62.

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