No. 17 Texas 68, No. 8 Oklahoma St. 57

Thursday, February 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Gabe Muoneke scored 17 points, including eight straight in a key second-half run, to lead No. 17 Texas to a 68-57 victory over No. 8 Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.

Texas (18-6, 9-2 Big 12) led 40-33 early in the second half when Muoneke went on his scoring spree, getting all of his points by muscling his way close to the basket for short jumpers and lay ups to push the Longhorns' lead to 48-35 with 13:55 left to play.

Oklahoma State (20-3, 9-2) cut the lead to 48-44 on a three-point play by Desmond Mason but got no closer. The Cowboys got within 61-55 on 3-pointer by Glendon Alexander before Chris Owens hit one of two foul shots for Texas and Longhorns center Chris Mihm grabbed the miss and brought the crowd of 15,525 to its feet with a two-handed dunk with 1:58 to play.

Mihm had 15 points and 16 rebounds for Texas, which also got 14 points from Darren Kelly. Texas shot 47 per cent from the field against the Big 12's best defense. Mason, who scored 30 points when Oklahoma State beat Texas 73-65 in January, finished with 12 on 4-of-13 shooting in the rematch.

One of the worst free throw shooting teams in the Big 12, Texas was 7-of-10 from the line over the final four minutes to help preserve its lead. The Longhorns also out rebounded the Cowboys39-25. OSU had just seven offensive boards.

Oklahoma State held the biggest lead of the first half at 17-12 before Texas used a 7-2 run sparked by Kelly's 3-pointer to tie it at 19. Doug Gottlieb hit a short jumper to put OSU up 24-23 before Ivan Wagner closed the first half with two 3-pointers over the final 1:51 as Texas took a 29-27 hal time lead. Mason picked up two fouls in the opening 10 minutes and was just 1-of-3 shooting for three points in the first half.