STILLWATER, Okla. -- Terrel Harris kept No. 13 Oklahoma State afloat in the first half. His teammates came along for the ride after halftime.
Harris scored a career-high 21 points as the Cowboys overcame a woeful first half to beat Iowa State 62-50 Saturday night, the six-year anniversary of a plane crash that killed 10 men connected to the school's basketball program.
Oklahoma State (18-3, 4-2 Big 12) extended its winning streak at Gallagher-Iba Arena to 16 games and snapped a three-game home losing streak to teams from the conference's North Division.
Iowa State (11-9, 2-4) has lost four straight. The Cyclones have beaten Oklahoma State only once in the last nine meetings.
The game Saturday was Oklahoma State's first on a Jan. 27 since the plane crash. The university didn't hold a formal memorial service but fans at the game did observe a moment of silence to honor the memory of the crash victims.
In the first half, the Cowboys seemed to play like their hearts weren't in the game, coach Sean Sutton said. Iowa State succeeded in its quest to slow the tempo and deny the Cowboys chances to score in transition.
The Cyclones led 23-17 at halftime, holding Oklahoma State to its lowest point total for a half this season.
"Our guys followed the plan about as well as we could expect the first half," Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said. "We needed to control the tempo to keep the crowd out of the game and then when (Jiri) Hubalek and (Mike) Taylor got into foul trouble, we really had to gear it down. I hate to play that way, but I also hate to lose."
The Cowboys made only three of their first 14 shots and trailed by as many as nine points in the opening minutes. Harris, with 11 points, was the only Oklahoma State player to score more than two points in the first half.
That prompted an impassioned halftime speech from Sutton.
"I just told them how important this game was," Sutton said. "If they want to have a chance to win the Big 12, if they want to have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament, this is a game that they had to win, and it was important for more reasons than that, because this day was the anniversary of the plane crash.
"I thought they responded well in the second half and played with a lot of intensity."
The Cowboys quickly erased the deficit, opening the second half on a 12-0 run -- taking their first lead of the game in the process -- and matching their first-half offensive output by the 12:23 mark.
Iowa State missed its first nine shots of the half and didn't score until its ninth possession. Nine minutes into the half, the Cyclones trailed 40-30, and they never led again. Oklahoma State eventually stretched its lead to as many as 15 points.
Harris finished 7-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range.
"I thought that we came out (in the second half) and set the tone with our defense," Sutton said. "We got some things going at the basket that opened up some outside shots for Terrel. He gave us some energy off the bench and we were able to get control of the tempo. That was the biggest thing."
Mario Boggan scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Oklahoma State. JamesOn Curry, the Cowboys' second-leading scorer, finished with 14 points.
Taylor led Iowa State with 13 points.
Two 3-pointers by Taylor pulled the Cyclones to 40-36 with 10 minutes left, but Harris answered with a 3-pointer and Kenny Cooper added a putback for the Cowboys to rebuild their lead.
The contrast between Oklahoma State's two halves were striking. The Cowboys shot 28.6 percent from the field before halftime and 59.3 percent in the second half. After committing seven turnovers in the first half, they had only two after halftime, and they outrebounded Iowa State 18-16 in the second half after the Cyclones posted a 23-14 first-half edge.
"Defense leads to offense," Harris said of the Cowboys' second-half surge. "In the second half, we got a couple of defensive stops and started running the court and that was when we started playing our game. I think when we were not scoring as much in the first half it was because we were not rebounding the ball."
Dodie Dunson scored 11 points for Iowa State, while Wesley Johnson had nine points and 10 rebounds. The Cyclones went 8-of-15 from the free throw line and shot 32.2 percent from the field.
"I don't fault our guys' effort or their ability to follow a plan," McDermott said. "We just made some mistakes. Our shooting percentages across the board aren't good enough to win anywhere."
