By Wendell Barnhouse | wendell@big12sports.com
Big12Sports.com Correspondent

STILLWATER, Okla. - A volatile mixture boiled and bubbled inside Gallagher-Iba Arena Wednesday night.

Oklahoma State, scuffling along in the second division of the Big 12 Conference standings, had lost three consecutive games. Missouri was the polar opposite. The Tigers had won 18 of 19 games and had ascended to No. 2 in the rankings.

Mix in the fact that venerable Gallagher-Iba Arena has become a place where ranked teams come to lose. Tuesday night the Cowgirls knocked off No. 14 Texas A&M. The last five times Missouri had come here ranked, they returned to Columbia with a loss.

Those factors became spontaneously combustible thanks to two freshmen who recorded career highs. Missouri's scouting report probably didn't account for Le'Bryan Nash (averaging 12.5 points) to score 27 and for Brian Williams (6.1 per game) to score 22.

 "We got their very best effort; they didn't get our very best effort," Missouri coach Frank Haith said. "We give them credit because they came out and they were ready to play and they executed."

Nash, the Big 12's preseason freshman of the year selection, has been inconsistent through the first 19 games. Against Missouri, he displayed the skills that made him a McDonald's All-American and one of the most highly touted recruits in Oklahoma State history.

The 6-7, 230-pound forward/guard has been a stick of TNT, which isn't dangerous if handled properly. Missouri happened to be in the same building when a lit match found Nash's fuse. As the awful student sportscaster once said "Boom goes the dynamite."

Oklahoma State was trailing 60-53 with 6:31 remaining when Nash gashed Missouri's lead. He scored 11 of the Cowboys' next 13 points, making three 3-pointers. His second triple with 3:22 remaining put Oklahoma State ahead 65-64 and his third - on a one-man fast break after scooping up a loose ball - gave the Cowboys a 68-64 advantage with just under three minutes remaining.

"Everyone is going to look at his 27 points, but his defense was better than his offense," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said of Nash, who made 12 of 18 shot attempts. "It's not a coincidence that when you play great defense it mentally gets you into the game. His defense was really, really good tonight.

"On offense, he was the X-factor. When plays don't work we have to do something and he did something."

Missouri was coming off an 89-88 victory at No. 3 Baylor in which the Bears shot 57 percent from the field. Raise some red flag warnings - the Cowboys shot 59.6 percent from the field. They entered the game last in the Big 12 in shooting accuracy.

Conversely, the Tigers lead the Big 12 in field goal percentage but shot 40 percent against Oklahoma State. Ricardo Ratliffe had 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting; his six teammates combined to made 16 shots in 48 attempts (33 percent). Over the last three games, leading scorer Marcus Denmon is 12-of-37 and is 4-of-22 on 3-pointers.

Missouri trailed 37-36 at halftime but built an eight-point lead in the first six minutes of the second half. Oklahoma State pulled within three with seven minutes to play before the Tigers rebuilt their edge to seven points before the Cowboys road Nash and Williams to rally during the last six minutes.

Ford foretold the Missouri second-half spurts.

"I told our guys 'They are the second-ranked team in America. They are going to make a run on you at some point. Are you going to decide to look at the scoreboard or keep doing what you did in the first half and score?'"

The answer was on the scoreboard at the buzzer, which led to the inevitable court storming to celebrate the type of upset that leads SportsCenter.

"It's a huge win for us, it shows us that we can play with anybody," Oklahoma State senior guard Keiton Page said. "I could tell, seeing it in our guys' eyes, they were extremely focused and they had one thing on their mind and that was beating Missouri.”