No. 20 Texas 55, Oklahoma St. 54

<br>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Baylor has gone from surviving to thriving in the Big 12 Conference tournament. No. 7 Iowa State is just gone. <br><br>The eighth-seeded Bears, who needed overtime to beat ninth-seeded

Saturday, March 10th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Baylor has gone from surviving to thriving in the Big 12 Conference tournament. No. 7 Iowa State is just gone.

The eighth-seeded Bears, who needed overtime to beat ninth-seeded Colorado on Thursday, shocked Iowa State _ the regular-season conference champion and top seed _ 62-49 in Friday's quarterfinals.

The loss stunned not just the Cyclones, but about 12,000 of their fans who came to Kansas City in hopes of seeing them win a second straight tournament title.

Instead, they saw Big 12 player of the year Jamaal Tinsley score just eight points before fouling out, and the Cyclones (25-5) shoot 31 percent from the field.

``I apologize to our fans,'' said Iowa State's Larry Eustachy, the Big 12 coach of the year. ``Money is tight and a lot of them made the drive down here.''

Ranked teams won all three of Friday's other quarterfinal games, but it wasn't easy for two of them.

No. 16 Oklahoma, the third seed, got the go-ahead basket from Nolan Johnson with 3.2 seconds left to beat Missouri 67-65. And No. 20 Texas needed a big defensive play from Brandon Mouton to hold off Oklahoma State 55-54.

Only No. 9 Kansas, seeded second, put away its opponent without much trouble. The Jayhawks went on a 20-point run in the first half and routed Kansas State 94-63.

DeMarcus Minor, who had 30 points in Baylor's victory over Colorado, scored 23 points against Iowa State as the Cyclones became the first No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tourney to lose its first game.

All-Big 12 guard Terry Black was 0-for-8 and scored just one point for the Bears (19-10), who meet Texas in Saturday's semifinals. Oklahoma plays Kansas in the other game.

``That really in a way just boosts our confidence,'' Baylor's Chad Elsey said. ``Terry's a great player, and for us to be able to beat a team like Iowa State when he's not having one of his typical games means a lot.''

Jake Sullivan and Tyray Pearson each had 10 points for Iowa State.

Justin Gage's basket with 29.3 seconds left gave Missouri (19-11) a 65-63 lead, but Johnson hit the first of two foul shots with 13.2 seconds remaining to cut the margin to one.

He missed the second free throw, but Oklahoma (24-6) got the ball back when Missouri's Kareem Rush and T.J. Soyoye collided going for the rebound and the ball went out of bounds.

Johnson, who finished with 20 points, then scored on a driving layup with 3.2 seconds left to give Oklahoma a 66-65 lead.

``I saw a clear lane, and I knew I wanted to be aggressive and hope for a foul,'' Johnson said. ``I did take it strong and it ended up going in.''

Rush hit five 3-pointers and led Missouri with 31 points in just his third game back from surgery on the thumb of his shooting hand.

Mouton saved Texas' win when he tied up Oklahoma State's Maurice Baker in the closing seconds. The Longhorns (24-7) got the ball on the alternate possession.

``It was fitting that the last play was defensive,'' Texas coach Rick Barnes said. ``The difference in the end was that we settled down and began attacking. We've been defending well all year and we did it again.''

Baker's 20 points led Oklahoma State, which failed to score in the first five minutes of the second half. Chris Owens scored 12 points to lead Texas.

Jeff Boschee hit five 3-pointers and scored 23 points for Kansas (24-5), which held the Wildcats (11-18) scoreless for nearly 8 1/2 minutes in the first half and beat Kansas State for the 22nd straight time.

Drew Gooden added 21 points for the second-seeded Jayhawks, who won the first three Big 12 tournament titles before Iowa State broke their streak last season. Kansas also broke its own Big 12 tournament single-game scoring record, set in 1998 in a 91-59 win over Nebraska.

``It's a shame, because we fought hard all year,'' Kansas State forward Matt Siebrandt said. ``I truly think that justice was not served with the way the season ended. We didn't play our game tonight and they took it to us.''

Tony Atchison led Kansas State with 13 points.