Kent State 69, Oklahoma State 61

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ Kent State wasted no time pulling off the first upset of the NCAA tournament. <br><br>Demetric Shaw scored 21 points, and Trevor Huffman 18 as 10th-seeded Kent State beat No. 7

Thursday, March 14th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ Kent State wasted no time pulling off the first upset of the NCAA tournament.

Demetric Shaw scored 21 points, and Trevor Huffman 18 as 10th-seeded Kent State beat No. 7 Oklahoma State 69-61 Thursday in the South Regional for its 19th straight victory.

The Golden Flashes (28-5) won their opening NCAA game for the second straight year. They beat Indiana 77-73 in 2001.

Huffman had 10 points in the first half as the Golden Flashes built a 30-15 lead with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the period and held on through several second-half rallies by the Cowboys (23-9).

The closest Oklahoma State came down the stretch was 64-60 on Ivan McFarlin's layup with 1:02 left. The Cowboys had the chance to cut it further, but Kent State's Eric Thomas stole a pass from Cheyne Gadson with 45 seconds left.

Oklahoma State hurt itself with poor shooting, finishing 21-of-53 (39.6 percent) from the field.

There was talk this week that Kent State was the lone Mid-American Conference team in the NCAA tournament, because Bowling Green (24-8) and Ball State (20-11) were passed over. Huffman said the Golden Flashes wanted to give the NCAA selection committee something to think about.

The Cowboys started just 4-of-19 from the field and went 8:40 between fields goals during one stretch.

In the second half, Oklahoma State had the lead down to five points several times behind Fredrik Jonzen's inside play and Victor Williams' driving baskets.

Jonzen finished with 19 points, and Williams 15.