No. 13 Oklahoma St. 77, Baylor 64

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Coming off one big game and facing another in a few days, No. 13 Oklahoma State avoided a letdown with yet another win over Baylor. <br><br>The Cowboys, behind 20 points and 14

Saturday, February 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Coming off one big game and facing another in a few days, No. 13 Oklahoma State avoided a letdown with yet another win over Baylor.

The Cowboys, behind 20 points and 14 rebounds from Ivan McFarlin, beat the Bears 77-64 on Saturday for their fourth straight victory.

Oklahoma State (22-6, 9-5), which stayed in a tie for third place in the Big 12, beat the Bears for the 10th straight time and handed them their fourth straight loss overall and 16th in a row on the road.

``It wasn't really hard getting up for this game,'' said Victor Williams, who had 18 points. ``At times we went back to not executing offensively like we wanted to and that caused them getting a lot of fastbreak points, but we closed the game out.''

The Cowboys picked up a big win Wednesday night at Texas, giving coach Eddie Sutton his 700th victory. On Monday night, they play at Missouri.

Lawrence Roberts led Baylor with 22 points and 15 rebounds, and R.T. Guinn scored a career-high 18. The Bears (14-13, 4-10) hurt themselves by shooting just 38 percent and committing 19 turnovers, 13 in the first half.

``I thought much of the game was decided in the first eight minutes,'' Baylor coach Dave Bliss said. ``It's difficult to simulate the quickness Oklahoma State has, and we got caught a little bit at the start with a turnover situation that gave them great opportunities offensively to get a little bit of a burst on us.''

Eight of the Bears' turnovers came during a five-minute stretch of the first half in which Oklahoma State outscored them 12-0 to take a 17-4 lead.

Roberts had three baskets and Guinn made two straight 3-pointers to help the Bears get within 23-18 later in the half. They cut the deficit to 29-25 on a three-point play by Matt Saymon 3:19 before halftime, but Oklahoma State outscored them 11-4 the rest of the way for a 40-29 lead.

``I thought when we started out we had a lot of energy, our defense was active and forcing turnovers,'' Sutton said. ``We should have been up 14, 15 points, but it reached a point where they sensed they could play with us. You've got to give their club a lot of credit. They really hung in there.''

Guinn was one of four Baylor players to hit a 3-pointer early in the second half when the Bears cut an 11-point halftime deficit to 44-41. But Oklahoma State responded with an 8-2 run to push the margin to nine with just under 10 minutes left.

It was 52-46 when the Cowboys put together a 9-2 run for a 61-48 lead. Included were two free throws by Andre Williams, a 36 percent shooter from the line. His success resulted in one of the biggest cheers of the afternoon.

``I thought it was great,'' Sutton said. ``It brought a big smile to all of us that are part of the Cowboy basketball team, and Andre in particular.''

After Oklahoma State took the 13-point lead, Baylor got no closer than 10.

Melvin Sanders had 16 points for the Cowboys, while Fredrik Jonzen had 12 points and 10 rebounds.