Tulsa has easy time -- again

By OWEN CANFIELD AP Sports Writer <br><br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Of the three ranked men's basketball teams in Oklahoma, only Tulsa had an easy time of things during the weekend. So what else is

Monday, January 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

By OWEN CANFIELD AP Sports Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Of the three ranked men's basketball teams in Oklahoma, only Tulsa had an easy time of things during the weekend. So what else is new? The Golden Hurricane, ranked No. 15 and climbing, rolled past Hawaii 100-78 on Saturday night for its 11th straight victory. Meanwhile, No. 12 Oklahoma State lost at Texas A & M and No. 17 Oklahoma needed two overtimes to beat Iowa State.

Tulsa (18-1, 4-0 Western Athletic Conference) grabbed 15 more rebounds than Hawaii, shot 54 percent from the field and had 20 assists on their 34 field goals. "They rebound well and they don't break," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "They stay together. They don't have any weaknesses. They deserve everything they're getting, and more."

Brandon Kurtz had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Greg Harrington scored 18, and Eric Coley had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Golden Hurricane, which plays host to Centenary tonight. "Taking charges and diving on the floor, those things are all contagious," coach Bill Self said. "When one guy is doing it, everyone else seems to do it."

The same was true for Oklahoma State, but in a bad way. The Cowboys, coming off a big victory over Texas on Wednesday night, never got in sync in a 64-59 loss to Texas A&M. Desmond Mason scored 19 points but was slowed by foul trouble. Fredrik Jonzen had 13 points and 11 rebounds, but Joe Adkins, Doug Gottlieb and Glendon Alexander combined to go 5-of-22 from the floor. "I had some concern coming off the big win against Texas," coach Eddie Sutton said. "Sometimes teams have letdowns. I knowour coaches had respect for Texas A&M, but I don't know how much our players had."

The Cowboys (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) had a 55-50 lead with 5:17remaining, but got outscored 14-4 after that. "This was kind of an embarrassing loss, to be honest," Gottlieb said. "This story wasn't really them, it was us. We beat ourselves." Oklahoma State visits Kansas State on Wednesday night.

Oklahoma, after blowing a 14-point lead in the final 6 1/2minutes, survived a scare at the end of regulation and again at theend of the first overtime before beating Iowa State 80-75. Eduardo Najera had 25 points -- seven in the second OT -- and 14rebounds to lead the Sooners (15-3, 3-2 Big 12). J.R. Raymond broke out of a scoring slump by scoring 20, and Tim Heskett and Victor Avila had big contributions off the bench. Heskett scored 18, all on 3-pointers, while Avila had seven points and eight rebounds.

Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy, whose team saw a 13-gamewinning streak end, said Heskett was the difference. "Heskett, I don't know how to describe him," OU coach Kelvin Sampson said. "But there's a lot to be said about open shots in this business. He can make open shots." Iowa State had a shot rim out at the end of regulation, then Michael Nurse made only one of two free throws in the closing seconds of the first overtime. If he had made the second, then Oklahoma would have had to go the length of the floor and score to win.

The loss ended a two-game conference losing streak for the Sooners. Both those games came on the road. "We desperately did need to win this basketball game," Sampson said. The Sooners are off until Saturday, when they visit Texas Tech.