Oklahoma State basketball notebook: Early foul trouble stings OSU in loss to Kansas State

But in the first half of Friday's 68-57 loss to Kansas State, two of those three were held scoreless. Nash (averaging 14.2 points) went 0-of-2 from the field, and Brown (averaging 15.5 points) didn't even get off a shot.

And much of that was due to foul trouble. Brown had two in the first three minutes and sat for the rest of the half. Nash was limited to 11 minutes after he picked up his second.

 “We left Marcus hanging out there,” Brown said. “That's something we can't do. We gotta be on the court to keep our offense going, offense and defense. We just gotta shake back from that one and move on to the next game.”

 “It felt really bad,” Nash added. “Because now I can't help my team contribute because I got stupid fouls. And it really got me out of sync.”

Troubles with McGruder

The Cowboys have been susceptible to big performances this season, but no one has stung them as proficiently and consistently as Rodney McGruder.

Kansas State's star two-guard put up 25 points and nine rebounds on Friday, including a personal 9-2 run to start the second half, where he hit a shot on the first four Wildcat possessions.

And that was typical of McGruder against OSU this year. He lit the Cowboys up for 28 back in January and put up 22 in losing effort last Saturday in Stillwater.

“Tonight we gave him some in transition in the second half, which is — it's easy to score in transition,” Travis Ford said. “But he earned some of them tonight. He made some really tough shots.”