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Updated March 9, 2007 8:14 AM

Big 12 Basketball: Oklahoma women in final, Men hold first day of play
Photos: A look back at the 2006-07 men's regular season
Tournament: Aggies to face Oklahoma State first | More: A&M promotes Law

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY - Mario Boggan scored 11 points to lead a balanced scoring attack as Oklahoma State beat Nebraska 54-39 in opening-round action of the Big 12 Conference Championship on Thursday night.

Boggan was the only Cowboys player to score in double figures. Teammates JamesOn Curry and Marcus Dove finished with nine points each and Byron Eaton and David Monds had eight and seven, respectively.

THURSDAY MEN Oklahoma 68, Iowa State 63 Texas Tech 81, Colorado 71 Oklahoma St. 54, Nebraska 39 Baylor 97, Missouri 83 WOMEN Iowa State 57, Texas A&M 51 Oklahoma 78, Baylor 64

The victory advances Oklahoma State (21-11) into a quarterfinal matchup with No. 2 seed Texas A&M on Friday, and keeps the Cowboys hopes for an NCAA Tournament bid alive.

Three days after shooting 54 percent in an 85-73 home victory over Oklahoma State, Nebraska (17-14) went into the deep freeze via a 13-of-47 shooting performance that included a 6-of-24 effort during the opening 20 minutes. The Cornhuskers were led by Aleks Maric with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

The seventh-seeded Cowboys controlled the contest early behind a swarming, physical defense that held Nebraska without a field goal for almost 10 minutes of the opening half. During that span, the Huskers missed their first 10 shots from the field and coughed up nine turnovers.

Monds 3-pointer gave the Cowboys a 15-1 advantage before Maric finally ended Nebraska's dry spell with a bucket at the 10:19 mark. That started an 11-0 Husker run that was capped by a 3-pointer from Sek Henry with 5:50 left before half.

Two possessions later, Oklahoma State snapped a 5-minute scoreless drought on a layup by Obi Muonelo, who followed with a 3-pointer that turned the tide back in the Cowboys favor. A 13-2 run - sparked by buckets by Boggan, Dove and Curry - helped OSU to a 30-19 halftime lead.

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Texas Tech 81, Colorado 71: OKLAHOMA CITY - Martin Zeno matched his career high with 28 points as Texas Tech burnished its NCAA tournament resume with an 81-71 win over Colorado on Thursday in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament.

Texas Tech (21-11) has won 20 games for the fifth time in six seasons under coach Bob Knight, but a five-game losing streak in late January and early February means the Red Raiders now are on the NCAA tournament bubble.

The fifth-seeded Red Raiders will play another bubble team, fourth-seeded Kansas State, on Friday in the quarterfinals.

Colorado (7-20) closed its final season under coach Ricardo Patton, who said before the season that his 11th campaign with the Buffaloes would be his last. Colorado failed to win consecutive games this season, the first time the Buffs had done that since the 1971-72 season.

The Buffs also lost 20 games in a season for the first time since the 1988-89 campaign, when they lost 21.

After the game, Knight put his arm around Patton and spoke to him briefly.

Colorado trailed only 66-63 with five minutes left, but Zeno made sure the Buffs came no closer, scoring 13 of Texas Tech's final 15 points, starting with a three-point play with 4:58 left. The Buffs managed only one basket in the final five minutes.

Dominique Coleman led Colorado with a career-high 25 points and added eight rebounds and four assists.

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Oklahoma 68, Iowa State 63: OKLAHOMA CITY - Nate Carter scored 22 points and got Oklahoma back on track after it had squandered a 14-point lead as the Sooners beat Iowa State 68-63 in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament on Thursday.

After the Cyclones (15-16) had rallied back to take the lead, Carter scored off an offensive rebound to get put ninth-seeded Oklahoma (16-14) back on top 56-55.

David Godbold's 3-pointer pushed Oklahoma's lead to four, and Iowa State went 4 minutes without scoring after its big comeback.

Mike Taylor scored 18 points, Wesley Johnson got all 11 of his points in the second half, and Dunson had 10 points for eighth-seeded Iowa State.

The Sooners snapped a six-game losing streak that began with the loss to the Cyclones, avoiding the longest run of losses since they dropped eight games in a row in February 1969.

Oklahoma will face No. 2 Kansas, the tournament's top seed, on Friday.

Without an unprecedented four wins in four days at the Big 12 tournament, both teams were likely playing for a chance at an NIT bid.

Iowa State shot 7-for-22 from 3-point range and broke the school's season record for 3s on Johnson's make in final minute. The Cyclones ended up with 203 3-pointers - two more than they had last season.

Johnson and Jiri Hubalek, the Cyclones' second- and third-leading scorers, helped lead the second-half comeback after being held scoreless in the first half. The duo scored Iowa State's first six points after halftime, and then contributed to a 10-0 run that got the Cyclones back within 42-39 on Johnson's layup off a baseline inbounds pass.

Each one picked up his fourth foul within a 47-second span, with Hubalek following Johnson to the bench with 9:23 to play, but the Cyclones kept coming.

Jessan Gray, who replaced Hubalek, had a two-handed dunk to keep the rally going, and Corey McIntosh put Iowa State ahead 56-55 on a driving layup with 4:38 remaining - setting off cheers from two noisy sections filled with Cyclones fans behind the Iowa State bench.

It was the only time Iowa State would lead the entire game.

Crocker, starting in place of the ill Michael Neal, scored the first five points of the game as Oklahoma opened an early 9-2 lead. Iowa State spent much of the rest of the half trying to close the gap, getting within one point twice before the Sooners pulled away with a 9-0 run made up entirely of free throws to go up 27-17.

Bobby Maze's 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer pushed the edge to 35-23, and his basket after the break pushed the lead to its highest point at 14.

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Baylor 97, Missouri 83: OKLAHOMA CITY - Baylor pulled off the only major upset of the opening day of the Big 12 tournament with the best shooting performance any team has ever had at the event.

Curtis Jerrells scored a career-high 31 points and Henry Dugat added 25, sparking the 11th-seeded Bears to their first Big 12 tournament win since 2001, a 97-83 victory over Missouri on Thursday night.

Led by Jerrells and Dugat, Baylor set a tournament record by shooting 63 percent. The Bears were 34-for-54 from the field.

The backcourt combo broke a 30-30 tie by combining for 15 straight points in a 2-minute span late in the opening half, helping Baylor to a 48-35 halftime lead.

WOMEN

No. 11 Oklahoma 78, No. 18 Baylor 64: OKLAHOMA CITY - Courtney Paris had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and No. 11 Oklahoma held off a second-half rally by No. 18 Baylor to win 78-64 Thursday night in a Big 12 Conference tournament women's semifinal.

Freshman guard Jenna Plumley scored 24 points for Oklahoma (25-4), which extended its winning streak against Baylor to six games over two seasons. Paris recorded her 57th straight double-double.

The Sooners and advanced to the title game Saturday against fifth-seeded Iowa State, which upset top-seeded and No. 13 Texas A&M 57-51. It will be the fifth Big 12 title game for the Sooners, who won in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Baylor (25-7) had reached the past two conference title games. All of Baylor's losses this season have come to ranked opponents. The Lady Bears have also lost twice to Texas A&M and once to both Purdue and Nebraska.