Oklahoma St. 68, Seton Hall 66

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Oklahoma State did a great job defending the 3 and is one win away from the Final Four. <br><br>The third-seeded Cowboys held Seton Hall to 7-of-34 shooting from 3-point range and

Friday, March 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Oklahoma State did a great job defending the 3 and is one win away from the Final Four.

The third-seeded Cowboys held Seton Hall to 7-of-34 shooting from 3-point range and beat the 10th-seeded Pirates 68-66 Friday night in the East Regional semifinals.

Oklahoma State (27-6) will meet fifth-seeded Florida, which beat top-seeded and top-ranked Duke 87-78, on Sunday for a berth in the Final Four.

The last time the Cowboys advanced this far in the NCAA tournament was in 1995 when they reached the Final Four for the first time under coach Eddie Sutton.

The Pirates (22-10), who needed overtime in each of their first two wins in the tournament, played without injured senior point guard Shaheen Holloway. The Pirates are the third of three Big East teams to lose in the round of 16. Syracuse and Miami also fell in the regional semifinals.

Defending the 3-pointer has been of the Cowboys' strengths all season as they were eighth in the nation, allowing 29.7 percent.

They were even better against Seton Hall, which was 23-of-44 in the first two games of the tournament, including an East Regional-record 15-of-30 in the second-round upset of second-seeded Temple.

Holloway sprained his left ankle eight minutes into the victory over Temple. Ty Shine replaced him and scored a career-high 26 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in overtime. Holloway, who didn't practice all week, didn't dress for the game and had to settle for a role as a cheerleader and extra assistant coach in his final college game.