Cincinnati ? Leonard Stokes couldn’t even fill up his gas tank the last few days without hearing the question: Cincinnati wasn’t going to lose four in a row, was it?

He and Jason Maxiell gave an emphatic answer Sunday: No way.

Maxiell scored a career-high 24 points, and Stokes had 15 points and 10 rebounds as the Bearcats beat No. 11 Oklahoma State, 61-50, ending a three-game losing streak that was the talk of the town.

“I was getting gas and a police officer said, ‘You can’t lose four in a row,”‘ Stokes said. “Everywhere you went, people were telling us we can’t lose four in a row.”

No Cincinnati team had lost four in a row during Bob Huggins’ 14 seasons as head coach. Banished from their plush locker room to the women’s crew locker room for poor effort during the slump, the Bearcats (14-6) came out determined to avoid infamy.

“Today was our Super Bowl,” point guard Taron Barker said. “It was do-or-die. If we’d have lost this game, we might as well have hung it up right there.”

Cincinnati’s tight man-to-man defense sent Oklahoma State (18-3) into a second-half tailspin. The Cowboys missed 16 of their first 18 shots in the half, allowing the Bearcats to turn a one-point deficit into a 14-point lead.

“We couldn’t buy a basket, and we couldn’t play defense,” said OSU forward Andre Williams, who fouled out with only two points and three rebounds. “I blame myself for a majority of it. I came out and played flat. I let my man score 24 points, a career high.”

Oklahoma State never got closer than nine points the rest of the way. The Cowboys shot a season-low 34 percent from the field, including 2-of-12 on three-point attempts.

Point guard Victor Williams led Oklahoma State with 18 points, but had only two assists as the offense bogged down for a second straight game. OSU shot only 38.6 percent from the field Wednesday in a 63-55 victory against Kansas State.

“Victor did a very poor job running the ballclub,” Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. “We’ve regressed. I told them in the locker room: ‘You aren’t playing as well as you were two or three weeks ago. It’s just poor execution. We don’t cut hard and we don’t screen as well as we should.”‘

Cincinnati forward Eric Hicks (14) celebrates the Bearcats' 61-50 victory over No. 11 Oklahoma State. Cincy avoided a four-game losing streak with the win Sunday in Cincinnati.

Two of the nation’s top half-court defenses set a slog-it-out pace, with open shots hard to find. Cincinnati led 27-26 after a back-and-forth first half that featured two ties, 10 lead changes and no lead of more than five points.

No. 21 Missouri 82, Texas Tech 73

Columbia, Mo. — Arthur Johnson had 23 points and 13 rebounds as Missouri, dominating inside, cooled off 800-win coach Bobby Knight.

MU outrebounded the Red Raiders 38-21, getting 13 on the offensive end. The Tigers (14-5 overall, 5-3 Big 12 Conference) remained unbeaten in 11 home games and rebounded from a six-point loss Monday at Kansas.

Andre Emmett had a career-high 34 points for Texas Tech (13-6, 3-5) on 14-for-20 shooting. But he was the Red Raiders’ only offensive weapon, with Will Chavis (12 points) the only other player in double figures.

Missouri exploited Texas Tech’s weakness inside by pounding the ball to the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Johnson whenever it needed a basket.

It was the 13th double-double for Johnson.