By Clayton Bellamy
The Associated Press

STILLWATER, Okla. - Even the sixth time around, John Lucas' 3-pointer drew a huge ovation.

About 4,000 orange-clad fans crowded into Gallagher-Iba Arena Sunday to welcome back the Cowboys to campus after they secured a spot in the Final Four with a win in the East Rutherford Regional final.

Lucas' shot gave the Cowboys a 64-62 victory over Saint Joseph's Saturday and sent them to their first Final Four since 1995. At Sunday's pep rally, the final minute of the win was shown over and over on the scoreboard's video screen.

"I thought they were going to be pretty good this year," 19-year-old freshman Eric Martin said. "But the Final Four - that was a dream."

Martin and two friends have been camping outside Gallagher-Iba since Thursday, hoping to get tickets for Saturday's game in San Antonio. They watched the Saint Joseph's game in their tent on a 27-inch television plugged into an arena outlet.

Oklahoma State will play Georgia Tech Saturday. The third-seeded Yellow Jackets beat fourth-seeded Kansas 79-71 in overtime Sunday to win the St. Louis Regional.

It doesn't matter to the players or coach Eddie Sutton who they play.

"I think they believe they can beat anybody," Sutton said of his players. Sutton, who was greeted Sunday with chants of "Eddie, Eddie," also took Arkansas to the Final Four in 1978.

This season, Sutton molded a team of five transfers and three veterans projected to finish in the middle of the Big 12, into the conference's regular-season and tourney champions and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

No transfer was more important than Lucas, who left Baylor last year after a scandal which included the shooting death of teammate Patrick Dennehy.

A year later, he made the clutch shot to get the Cowboys past the Hawks.

"So much was going through my head," said Lucas of his game-winning shot. And fans at the celebration gave him a standing ovation for his work.