Oklahoma St. 64, No. 10 Iowa St. 63

<br>STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ The Oklahoma State Cowgirls continue to surprise, despite being in a difficult situation. <br><br>Three days after beating 16th-ranked Texas Tech, the Cowgirls upset No. 10

Monday, February 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ The Oklahoma State Cowgirls continue to surprise, despite being in a difficult situation.

Three days after beating 16th-ranked Texas Tech, the Cowgirls upset No. 10 Iowa State 64-63 on Sunday. The victories followed the announcement last week that 19-year coach Dick Halterman will not have his contract renewed.

``I commend Oklahoma State,'' Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly said. ``It has been a tough week for their players and their staff, and they played a great game. They played hard and with a great sense of purpose.''

Trisha Skibbe scored the go-ahead basket on a jumper in the lane with 3.8 seconds left, then blocked Lindsey Wilson's shot at the buzzer to preserve the victory.

The Cowgirls (13-13, 5-8 Big 12) won back-to-back games in conference play for the first time this season and beat Iowa State for the first time since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996-97.

I didn't know how much time was on the clock, but I knew that time was running out and luckily it went in,'' Skibbe said of her shot. ``I knew where I was on the floor, but I just saw the two defenders coming at me, so I was either praying for it to go in or get fouled.''

Wilson scored on a driving layup with 14 seconds left to put the Cyclones ahead 63-62. But Skibbe tossed in her off-balance game-winner in the lane, then denied Wilson, who had driven inside the foul line before pulling up for a jumper.

``I think we did what you can hope for, and that is get a good look,'' Fennelly said. ``Wilson did well to get inside and get the shot off, but you're never going to get a good shot with that short amount of time left.''

Skibbe finished with a 21 points and 11 rebounds, Tari Cummings had 18 points and Thia Willis scored 11.

Iowa State (19-6, 7-6) got 18 points from Angie Welle, all in the second half. Wilson scored 17 on 5-of-21 shooting, and Tracy Gahan had 13.

The Cyclones rallied from a poor first half in which they shot just 31.6 percent and committed 12 turnovers. They trailed 18-6 midway through, but benefitted from Oklahoma State's similar struggles _ 28 percent shooting and 10 turnovers.

Iowa State took its first lead since the opening moments when Welle scored on a layup to make it 39-38 with 12:39 left. After eight lead changes, the Cyclones led 61-58 with 2:06 remaining.

Skibbe then scored on a turnaround jumper, setting up the final flurry.

``I did not think that we could guard them as well as we did,'' Halterman said. ``We won the ballgame with defense, there's not any question about that.''