Oklahoma St. 90, Pepperdine 74

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) Oklahoma State has a tradition of winning with defense, but it took a strong offensive performance for the Cowboys to claim victory Saturday.<br/><br/>Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry

Saturday, December 2nd 2006, 6:50 pm

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) Oklahoma State has a tradition of winning with defense, but it took a strong offensive performance for the Cowboys to claim victory Saturday.

Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry each scored 24 points as the Cowboys gradually pulled away for a 90-74 victory on Saturday.

The Cowboys (9-0) hit 34-63 shots (54 percent), including 21-33 (63.6 percent) in the 2nd half.

Pepperdine (1-6) sank only 1-9 3-pointers in the 1st half but hit 7-13 from long range after halftime, keying the Waves 37-26 run to open the 2nd half.

Pepperdine pulled within 61-56 with 8:48 remaining, but from there, the Cowboys slowly built a lead that stretched to 69-60 on a jumper by Curry and to 74-62 on another Curry jumper. Pepperdine never got closer than 10 after that.

"The first half, I thought we played really good defense the first 17 minutes," OSU coach Sean Sutton said. "The 2nd half, we just had a hard time stopping them. They are unorthodox on offense. You don't see many teams that play like them."

Boggan, who had a double-double with 13 rebounds, said the team enter the game with a lot of energy and confidence.

"In the 2nd half, we did not play as well. They hit some big shots inside and out," he said.

The Waves tried to take advantage of OSU only having eight healthy players. They used a full-court press and an attacking offense to keep the Cowboys running.

"We are going to have a long year," Pepperdine coach Vance Walberg said. "What we want to do is get a little bit smarter each time out. That's what were trying to do."

Obi Muonelo scored 16 points and had 7 assists for Oklahoma State. Terrel Harris and David Monds added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Lea Marvin scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the 2nd half for Pepperdine. Chase Griffin added 18 points and Tomas Pranciliauskas scored 11.