OKLAHOMA CITY - Eddie Sutton wasn't born last night. The craggy-faced Oklahoma State coach hasn't won nearly 800 basketball games by getting surprised.

He got No. 789 Thursday night convincingly, popping Tennessee's bubble with an 89-73 victory in the All-College Classic at the Ford Center.

Sutton had a pretty good clue as to how to beat the Vols. Throw a blanket on C.J. Watson and Chris Lofton and you're more than halfway home.

When the Cowboys headed to the halftime locker room with a 42-26 lead, they had executed Sutton's game plan brilliantly.

Lofton had scored two points - and that was two more than Watson.

The Cowboys covered up Lofton with long defenders, primarily 6-foot-9 Marcus Dove.

"Dove did a wonderful job on Chris,'' UT coach Bruce Pearl conceded.

"Chris came off some screens and he was open, but then Dove got an arm up and all of a sudden he wasn't open.''

As for Watson, there were extenuating circumstances.

The senior point guard has been under the weather, his practice time restricted since the Vols' big win at Texas five days earlier.

"I think it showed in the first half,'' said Pearl. "I think maybe he was saving himself a little bit.''

Then there was Byron Eaton, Oklahoma State's freshman guard who is built like a fullback or, perhaps, a rodeo steer wrestler.

"His physicality was a factor,'' Pearl noted. "He doesn't play like a freshman, that's for sure.''

Eaton and his backcourt mate, JamesOn Curry, combined to score 32 points. Curry threw in seven assists. Eaton's best contribution, though, was bumping and grinding with Watson.

"If you stop the point guard,'' said Eaton, "the point guard can't get the show going, so that's what I tried to do.''

Pearl is a heckuva basketball coach, but not a miracle-worker. He acknowledges this team's limitations and his attempts to disguise them.

Hold Lofton and Watson to two points for a half and there's no way to disguise the fact that the Vols lack firepower at the other three positions.

This night, the other three starters - Dane Bradshaw, Major Wingate and Stanley Asumnu - combined for only 16 points, easily a season-low.

UT's bench produced 24 points. Oklahoma State's bench countered with 23, a virtual wash.

The Vols, to their credit, did have one good run in them to start the second half. And it was all Lofton and Watson.

Watson opened the second half with a flurry: A trey, a steal and layup, another trey.

Dove, meanwhile, sat out the second half after taking a hard fall before intermission. All of a sudden Lofton was getting looks.

Ten points from Watson and 10 from Lofton accounted for 20 of UT's 22 points to open the half and slash the deficit to 51-48.

Watson, however, was done. He added only two free throws in the final 16 minutes.

"I had backed off him,'' said Eaton, "but then I went back to doing what I needed to do, just not letting them do what they wanted to do, like we did in the first half.''

Lofton kept going, scoring 19 in the second half to finish with 21.

He regretted his misspent first half and didn't buy the long-armed defender theory as a valid explanation.

"I guess you could say that or you could say I really wasn't aggressive enough,'' Lofton said. "I don't think I was.

"We can't do that and expect to win, us combining for two points in the first half.''

Not on a team with Tennessee's limitations.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.