No. 13 Oklahoma St. 79, Texas Tech 70

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) _ Dominating the first few minutes of each half against Texas Tech allowed No. 13 Oklahoma State to extend the nation's longest winning streak to 14 games. <br><br>Melvin Sanders

Sunday, January 26th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) _ Dominating the first few minutes of each half against Texas Tech allowed No. 13 Oklahoma State to extend the nation's longest winning streak to 14 games.

Melvin Sanders was the man at the start of the game and Victor Williams starred at the beginning of the second half of the Cowboys' 79-70 on Sunday.

``They just beat us badly in both situations,'' Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. ``And we couldn't come back from that. They played really well in those periods.''

Sanders, who finished with 17 points, hit three straight 3-pointers in the game's first four minutes. Williams got seven of his 24 points in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second half.

``Everybody steps up on any given night,'' Oklahoma State's Andre Williams said of the Cowboys' winning streak. ``Anybody can score a bunch of points and we need to keep that rolling to keep this rolling.''

Oklahoma State (16-1, 5-0 Big 12) scored on seven of its first nine possessions in the second half and used a 14-0 run to take a 54-39 lead.

Many of the Cowboys' points came on fast breaks from turnovers and rebounds. The Cowboys outscored Tech 18-4 in fast break points.

``We got a lot of baskets in transition today,'' Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. ``If Bob were to be critical of his team, it might be in the fact that we beat them down the floor some and got some baskets.''

Texas Tech (11-4, 1-3) used a 21-11 run to get within 65-64 with 3:13 remaining, but the Cowboys put together a 10-1 run to lead 75-65 with 31 seconds remaining. Tony Allen, who finished with 21 points, had two layups in the run.

Trailing by 11 points early in the second half, Tech had to claw it way back into the game.

``At the beginning of the second half, we dug ourselves a big hole,'' said Kasib Powell, who led Texas Tech with 26 points. ``Then it took all of our energy to come back and we couldn't get over the hump.''

Andre Emmett, who finished with 23 points, scored seven straight points to lead Texas Tech's comeback. The Red Raiders also were aided by turnovers on five straight possessions by Oklahoma State in the game's closing minutes.

Powell and Emmett scored all but 21 of Tech's points.

``Anybody but a moron would want five guys that could score,'' Knight said.

The loss came in Knight's 1,100th career game and keeps him at 798 wins.

Texas Tech went more than five minutes without a field goal midway through the first half and trailed 26-16 with 6:38 remaining. The Red Raiders, however, went into halftime after scoring on 10 of their last 11 possessions and trailed 37-35.

``I told them at halftime that they were only two points better off than they were when the game started,'' Sutton said. ``Emmett and Powell hurt us, but you look at the rest of their team, and they didn't score that many.''

Texas Tech had won seven straight home games.