No. 11 Oklahoma St. 63, Kansas St. 55

<br>STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Eddie Sutton's 1,000th game as a Division I head coach isn't likely to make his list of most memorable games. <br><br>No. 11 Oklahoma State got off to a quick start

Thursday, February 6th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Eddie Sutton's 1,000th game as a Division I head coach isn't likely to make his list of most memorable games.

No. 11 Oklahoma State got off to a quick start against Kansas State, then played rather ordinarily in a 63-55 victory Wednesday night.

Sutton wasn't happy with his team's interior defense, even though the Cowboys blocked shots. He didn't like their helter-skelter play on offense, either.

``Yet we won the game. That's the bottom line,'' he said.

The victory was the 720th in his 33-year career and his 290th at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys (18-2, 7-1 Big 12) got back on track after a weekend loss to Texas that ended their 15-game winning streak.

Sutton became the 17th Division I coach to reach 1,000 games, which he dismissed as no big deal.

``It just means I've coached a long time,'' he said.

Tony Allen scored 17 points and Andre Williams had seven blocks for the Cowboys, who nearly saw a 15-point first-half lead disappear early in the second half.

``We had just been coming off a loss and we wanted to get on a roll,'' Williams said. ``We wanted to come out tonight and re-establish ourselves.''

It looked early on as though they would have no trouble doing that. They took a 14-2 lead in the first 3:40, and a 7-0 run a few minutes later made it 21-6 midway through the half. By that time, Kansas State (11-9, 2-5) had eight turnovers.

But the Cowboys made only two field goals the rest of the half, missing 10 shots _ four on one possession _ and turning it over five times.

``You can't play much better than we were playing there, and then we just shut it down,'' Sutton said.

Kansas State chipped away behind scoring from Matt Siebrandt, who finished with 17 points, and Marcus Hayden.

The Wildcats trailed 27-17 before scoring the final six points of the half, four of them on baskets by Tim Ellis. Then they got as close as two in the second half, 30-28, on a 3-pointer by Schyler Thomas with 16:02 remaining.

``I really felt like once we got things going we could play the game, provided we don't turn it over,'' Kansas State coach Jim Wooldridge said.

Sutton got right to the point during a timeout after the Wildcats pulled within two.

``I just told 'em, 'Start playing,''' Sutton said. ``I said 'You guys, you just make too many dumb plays.'''

They promptly forced a turnover that Allen turned into a fast-break layup. Then Melvin Sanders, who had 14 points, scored on a layup started by one of Williams' blocks.

The Cowboys were finally able to shake Kansas State with a 7-0 run midway through the second half. The Wildcats only trailed 38-34 at the 10:17 mark before Oklahoma State used its defense take over.

After Victor Williams made a short fallaway jumper for a 40-34 lead, Sanders scored on a dunk off a turnover. Ivan McFarlin added a free throw and Allen had a dunk on another turnover-driven fast break to make it 45-34 with 7:54 remaining.

Kansas State got no closer than eight points after that.

The Wildcats wound up with 19 turnovers. They lost for the fifth time in six games and dropped to 0-4 on the road in conference play.