Oklahoma St. 71, Arkansas 45

Tuesday, December 31st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Arkansas coach Stan Heath was wondering how his inexperienced Razorbacks would do in a hostile environment against Oklahoma State and, after a 71-45 loss, now he knows.

``We totally got dominated in just about every phase of the game,'' Heath said. ``Give Oklahoma State a lot of credit, they really took us out of our offense and made it tough for us to make entries.''

Senior guard Victor Williams led Oklahoma State with 22 points that brought him a season high and ranked as the third highest score by a Cowboy this season. Williams was 8-of-13 from the field and scored on four of his six three-point attempts.

``Some days I can really feel it and really go out there and stroke the ball and some days I can't,'' Williams said. ``There is no happy medium with me right now and that's something I have to find.

Tony Allen with 14 and Ivan McFarlin with 11 were the only other Cowboys to hit double digits. OSU's Melvin Sanders set a season high by grabbing nine rebounds.

Alonzo Lane was the Razorbacks' high scorer with 10.

Arkansas (5-5) went into halftime trailing 34-18 and Oklahoma State (9-1) never gave them a chance to make it up, lengthening the lead by 10 more points before the game was over.

The Cowboys held Arkansas to 32.7 percent shooting from the field and just 7.7 percent of three-pointers. Oklahoma State forced Arkansas into 33 turnovers and made 12 steals.

The Cowboys hit 56.3 percent of its field goals which ties their victory over Alaska-Anchorage as OSU's best shooting of the season.

Arkansas' Heath had high praise for the Cowboy defense and said it was probably the best the Razorbacks have come up against this year.

``The difference was that they were physically stronger than us and more athletic at those wing positions,'' Heath said.

The Cowboys also barely outrebounded Arkansas 34-33.

The win extends Oklahoma State's home winning streak against non-conference opponents to 17.

``What a great way to end the year 2002,'' Cowboy coach Eddie Sutton said. ``I thought, except for our inability to hit free throws, we played quite well. Our defense was exceptional.''