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By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Sports Writer

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Texas A&M's Acie Law IV walks off the court after Oklahoma State beat the Aggies 57-56. Law had 10 points and five assists.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Finishing plays.

It was muttered over and over after the game.

It was the reason Oklahoma State had trouble scoring in the first half, and it was the reason Texas A&M was unable to put the Cowboys away, falling 57-56 to OSU in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championship on Friday at the Ford Center.

Mario Boggan twisted and turned his way to the basket and floated a right-handed layup over the side of the rim to give the Cowboys a 57-56 lead with 11 seconds remaining.

"Coach just wanted me to get the ball and go to the hole hard," Boggan said. "That's what I put in my head: Don't settle for no jump shot."

After Boggan's layup, OSU's attention immediately turned to Acie Law IV, who has hit numerous clutch shots over the past two seasons. This time, though, the Cowboys (22-11) forced Law to pass as he dribbled inside the 3-point arc. Law dished it to Josh Carter in the corner - Carter's favorite spot - and he launched a 3 that hit the rim and bounced long.

A&M's Antanas Kavaliauskas rebounded and missed a jumper. Carter grabbed the rebound, took two steps back and threw up another jumper just before the buzzer sounded. The game-winning attempt bounced off the back of the rim.

"We said ... we were going to try and push it back and try and get a quick basket," Law said. "But they did a good job of getting back in transition defense and not letting me get to the basket. They forced me to kick it out, and we weren't able to make a play to win the game."

The victory kept OSU's chances of making the NCAA Tournament alive, while it erased any hope the seventh-ranked Aggies (25-6) had of gaining a No. 1 seed.

Carter had given the Aggies a 56-55 lead with a 3-pointer. He then fouled out Oklahoma State guard JamesOn Curry by taking a charge on the following possession.

The second-seeded Aggies put away the Cowboys early in both regular-season meetings - 67-49 at Reed Arena and 66-46 in Stillwater. But they were unable to duplicate the feat Friday.

A&M led 35-26 about 5 minutes into the second half and appeared to be in better shape later with a 43-36 lead and four fouls on Curry and OSU's Marcus Dove, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Butch Ireland Oklahoma State's Mario Boggan takes the game-winning shot in the Cowboys' 57-56 win over Texas A&M.

But in the final 13 minutes, the Aggies made only five baskets and converted just one of two free throw attempts on three different occasions.

"We were in position to make a few plays and a few easy baskets, and we weren't able to finish them," Law said. "We played hard. We've just got to do a better job of finishing plays."

A&M, which came in shooting 50 percent from the floor, shot 42 percent for the game and missed 8 of 20 free throws.

Oklahoma State was 11 of 12 from the line. Free-throw shooting and second chance points, which OSU won 13-1, were the only two statistics showing one team with any real advantage.

"We got what we needed. We just didn't finish plays," Gillispie said. "We got the ball in the paint plenty of times. We have really good players. They just didn't finish enough plays in the paint."

Joseph Jones did his share of finishing, hitting on 6 of 9 from the field for a game-high 18 points. Carter ended with 14 points, and Law had 10, his second-lowest point total against a Big 12 team this season.

"One of the things we felt we had to do, and we talked about it at the shoot-around, at the pregame meal and again before the game, was we did not want Acie Law to beat us," OSU coach Sean Sutton said. "We wanted to force someone else on their team in the last 3 or 4 minutes [to beat us]."

Oklahoma State fell behind by not converting its open shots. The Cowboys hit 35 percent from the field and missed their first five shots of the second half.

"Usually when they get a lead like that, we might put our head down," Boggan said. "We might not make a stop, but tonight we made plays on the defensive end."