CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- David Monds had the rim square in his

sights.

Put the ball through the hoop, and Oklahoma State was likely

looking at a win in the first round of the National Invitation

Tournament.

But trailing 60-59 with seven seconds left in the game, the

6-foot-8 junior missed a wide-open layup attempt. And as a result,

the Cowboys (17-16) suffered their eighth loss by 3 points or less

this season, this time a 62-59 defeat at the hands of host Miami

(17-15).

"I thought he got caught in between," Oklahoma State interim

coach Sean Sutton said. "He wasn't sure whether to dunk it, (or)

whether to take a dribble and lay it in. Maybe he was a little

surprised just how open he was, but that's a play you have to

make."

Monds' late-game blunder came after an astonishing series of big

plays for Oklahoma State, which roared back from a 58-50 deficit

with 45 seconds remaining to pull to within one point of Miami with

23 seconds left.

"I took a big gasp," said Miami guard Robert Hite, who tied

Guillermo Diaz for the team lead with 15 points. "I can't believe

he missed it. He should have dunked it."

The Cowboys converted three consecutive 3-pointers within a

14-second span, including two by Byron Eaton.

The second of Eaton's 3-pointers came off a turnover by Hite.

"Down the stretch, we made some good shots to get back in it,"

Sutton said. "I thought we turned up our intensity at the

defensive end and certainly made some key 3-point shots to give us

a chance. That's all you can hope for when you were in the spot

that we were in."

"We had some plays that we didn't make that made it very

interesting down the stretch," Miami coach Frank Haith said. "But

I'm proud of our guys being able to make plays when we needed to

make plays."

Miami finished with a season-high 14 steals in what was just the

fifth postseason win in school history.

The Hurricanes, who were hosting a postseason game for the first

time ever, advanced to the second round of the NIT for the first

time since 1963. But it didn't come easy.

Miami was ahead 46-32 after Hite hit a 3-pointer with 10:35

remaining in the game, but Oklahoma State responded with an 18-8

run to pull to within 54-50 on a free throw by Mario Boggan with

2:27 left.

Boggan scored a game-high 16 points for the Cowboys. Miami then

scored four points during a 15-second span, taking a 58-50 lead on

a layup by Denis Clemente with 45 seconds remaining.

But Eaton responded by draining back-to-back 3-pointers, pulling

the Cowboys to within 58-53 with 37 seconds to play.

Diaz was fouled and converted a pair of free throws to put the

Hurricanes up 60-56 with 27 seconds left, but Oklahoma State

responded with another 3-pointer, this one from JamesOn Curry with

22.1 seconds left.

Curry's shot cut Miami's lead to 60-59. Hite was fouled with

20.0 seconds left, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Monds

then missed his layup, with the shot rimming out and bouncing out

of bounds.

After being fouled, Diaz converted a pair of free throws with

4.1 seconds left to give Miami a 62-59 lead, and Eaton misfired on

a last-second 3-point attempt.

"We showed a lot of character today," Hite said. "It was

tough down the stretch. We kept fighting and came away with the

win, and now we're advancing in the NIT."

Miami's next NIT opponent will be the winner of Thursday's game

between Creighton (19-9) and Akron (23-9). Oklahoma State,

meanwhile, must face the reality of not only missing out on the

NCAA Tournament, but losing a first-round NIT game for the first

time since 1956.

"I got a lot of anger for getting in the NIT," Eaton said.

"Not saying anything bad about it. Just saying where this program

has been -- the NCAA -- and now we're in the NIT and now to come to

the NIT and lose first round, that's very bad."