Cowboys Turn Tide With Defense, 66-52 : East: Oklahoma State limits Alabama to 36% shooting. Reeves has 26.

The same strengths that got the Oklahoma State Cowboys into the NCAA tournament carried them into the round of 16.

Bryant Reeves scored 26 points, Randy Rutherford scored 18, and a suffocating defense limited Alabama to 36% shooting in a 66-52 second-round East Regional victory Saturday.

The Cowboys also benefited from an injury to Crimson Tide center Antonio McDyess, whose brief absence helped the 14th-ranked Cowboys turn the game around.

Reeves, with 16, and Rutherford, with 14, accounted for 30 of Oklahoma State’s 38 second-half points, including every point in a 9-0 run that put the Cowboys ahead to stay.

“Randy and Bryant have carried us all year long,” Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton said. “Today, if we were giving game balls, we’d give one to each of them.”

Alabama was two for 20 from three-point range--the ninth time in the last 10 games that Oklahoma State had held the opposition under 40%.

“You have to give most of the credit to Oklahoma State’s defense,” Alabama Coach David Hobbs said.

Reeves raised his season total to 733 points, most in school history. The 7-foot senior topped Byron Houston’s old mark of 726 with a soft jumper that gave the Cowboys a 53-46 lead with 4:52 remaining.

Oklahoma State (25-9), seeded fourth in the East, reached the round of 16 for the third time in five seasons.

The Cowboys trailed, 33-32, when McDyess limped off with 14:44 left after hurting the area around his left knee. By the time he returned with 11:35 left, the Crimson Tide trailed, 40-35.

Alabama (23-10) never came closer than three after that.

“I came down wrong,” McDyess said. “When I came back I was still hurting, but I just tried to play through it.”

McDyess, who had 39 points and 19 rebounds in the tournament opener against Penn, finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds against Oklahoma State. But his short stay on the bench cost Alabama dearly.

Said Reeves: “When McDyess got hurt, that really opened it up for me. Our guards did a great job of putting it for me where I could put it in the basket.”

Rutherford missed his first five three-point attempts, but made four in a row to make it 49-42 with 6:38 left.