KTUL.com - Tulsa's Channel 8 - News, Weather & SportsCowboys Struggle Against Cardinals

Travis Ford's Cowboys hung with Josh Owens and the Stanford Cardinal for about a half of their NIT Tip-Off Classic Semifinal Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  Stanford advances to the final with a 82-67 victory over OSU.

The Cardinal was led by Josh Owens who hit his first nine shots and finished with a game-high 21 points.

The game was tied at 29 with 5:09 left in the first half.  That's as close as Oklahoma State would be to the Cardinal the rest of the way.

Freshman Le'Bryan Nash paced the Cowboys with 16 points.

This was the first basketball game played since the deaths of OSU women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna.  The two were killed in a place crash last Thursday while on a recruiting trip.  The Cowboys wore patches on their jerseys to honor the four killed in the plane crash.

Oklahoma State will next face Virginia Tech Friday in the NIT Tip-Off Classic consolation final.