When Eddie Sutton ran from his spot on Oklahoma State’s bench to Kansas University’s bench with 55.1 seconds left in Saturday’s Big 12 Conference basketball game, it wasn’t to tell KU seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich good riddance.

“I just wanted to go down there and tell them that they really brought a lot of class to the University of Kansas and the Big 12,” Sutton, OSU’s basketball coach, said after KU’s 79-61 Senior Day victory at Allen Fieldhouse.

Collison and Hinrich combined for 43 points and 22 rebounds in their final home game. The All-America candidates have won three straight games against Sutton’s Cowboys after losing to OSU twice as freshmen.

Sutton said he had left his own bench during a game to congratulate opposing players three other times during his 43-year career.

“I just felt like I wanted to go down there because we might not play them again,” said Sutton, whose team could face the Jayhawks during the Big 12 tournament March 13-16 in Dallas. “I’m really not looking forward to playing them again.”

That’s understandable.

No. 16 OSU (20-7 overall, 9-5 Big 12) had no answer for the 6-foot-9 Collison, who finished with 24 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots in 37 minutes. No. 7 KU (22-6, 12-2) outrebounded Oklahoma State, 54-34, and had 13 second-chance points to the Cowboys’ four.

Okie State’s half-court defense forced KU to use most of the shot clock on numerous possessions, but it could not keep the Jayhawks off the glass.

“We’d work for 30 seconds, and they’d get the rebound, and we’d have to work 30 more seconds,” OSU’s Melvin Sanders said. “That’s really frustrating, especially when you’re playing hard and trying to keep them from scoring, and they get a putback, a tip-in or something like that.”

Guards Sanders, Victor Williams and Tony Allen combined for all 33 of OSU’s first-half points and 52 of its 61 total points. No other Cowboy made a field goal until forward Ivan McFarlin scored with 11:34 remaining. By that time, Kansas had a comfortable 59-47 lead.

Starting forwards McFarlin and Andre Williams combined for seven points and 12 rebounds. Credit most of those modest statistics to McFarlin, because Williams had zero points and two rebounds in 17 minutes. He fouled out for the sixth time in seven games.

“It’s hard to win unless you just have a terrific shooting night — like we did against Texas — when you have to shoot the ball from out on the perimeter,” said Sutton, whose team defeated Texas, 82-77, Feb. 22 at Stillwater, Okla., when the Cowboys made 11 three-pointers. “We had nothing inside. We had eight offensive rebounds. Our big guys just didn’t play as well as they need to.”

Oklahoma State trailed 28-15 with 6:27 left in the first half after a 10-0 KU run. The Cowboys answered with a 10-1 run, including four points each from Sanders and Allen, cutting the deficit to 29-24 with 4:02 remaining.

OSU was within four at 37-33 in the final minute, but Collison drained a three-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.

“We made too many mistakes in key parts of the game,” Victor Williams said. “We really made a run, and they came out and hit a big trey. That really takes the wind out of you.”

Kansas scored the first five points of the second half and was in control the rest of the way.

The Cowboys knew coming in they would have their hands full at KU, which hasn’t lost a Senior Day game since 1983. Three of OSU’s starters — Sanders and the Williamses — are Kansas natives.

“I knew it was going to be a hard task for us to come in here and win it,” said Victor Williams, a graduate of Kansas City Wyandotte High who grew up rooting for the Jayhawks. “I know we have the personnel to do it if we would have limited our mistakes. We didn’t do that tonight.”