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Beard, Boynton Impressed by Oklahoma State’s Crowd Amid Poor Weather

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The announced attendance at Oklahoma State’s victory over No. 6 Texas Tech on Wednesday evening was 7,092. That’s certainly not how many people were in the building, but with freezing temperatures and icy weather, there were more than anyone expected.

“I would be totally remiss if I didn’t give a great thank you to the people who showed up,” said head coach Mike Boynton. “They were really, really engaged. A lot of it was our students, and we appreciate them coming across campus and supporting fellow classmates. We had people from the community and some out of town people who made the trek and are just committed to supporting us.

“We have a great amount of appreciation for them and their willingness to come out here with the weather not being great and with us being on a little bit of a losing streak with the end of the season nearing. We appreciate the people who came, and we thank them so much and look forward to seeing them for one more home game in about a week and a half.”

OSU got the orange faithful riled up, too, with one of their hottest starts to a second half all season. The Cowboys went on a 14-2 run to open the final 20 minutes, which whipped the folks who made it into a frenzy.

“It means a lot,” said Lindy Waters after scoring 18 points on six field goal attempts. “We weren’t expecting much with a potential ice storm. Me and Jeff (Carroll) had trouble getting here, so we didn’t think there was going to be many people here. Once the game gets going, it starts to fill up and the students got rowdy, as usual, it gives us the energy to keep playing.”

Even Texas Tech was impressed with the crowd (and specifically the students), which is not something you would have said about GIA at many points over the last few years.

“I just want to congratulate Oklahoma State on a good Big 12 win,” said Tech coach Chris Beard. “I thought they played harder than us tonight and with more emotion. That’s really disappointing from our point of view.

“I know with the weather and all, I was really impressed with the crowd tonight. It doesn’t surprise me. I know this is one of the most historic basketball programs in the history of the game. It was really cool to see Coach [Eddie] Sutton here tonight. Of course, Sean [Sutton] has done a great job for us, and I know Scott [Sutton] is doing the same for Mike [Boynton].

“I want to recognize the crowd. I thought the student section here was good. We didn’t play our best, but I think you have to give Oklahoma State a lot of credit. That’s about as bad as we have been whipped at the start of the second half. So, hopefully our team will learn from it.”

There’s only one (!) more chance for OSU fans to catch a game in GIA this year, when Kansas comes to town next Saturday to touch off the Big 12 regular season. The Jayhawks have not been swept in the regular season during Bill Self’s tenure in Lawrence.

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