ORU Pulls Away From IPFW at Home

Originally Published: Jan 9, 2010 8:4 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma –Oral Roberts (9-8, 4-2) avoided a second straight conference home loss, beating IPFW 68-55 Saturday night. The Golden Eagles haven’t lost back-to-back Summit League games at home since 2004.

Kevin Ford and Dominique Morrison led the Golden Eagles on the stat sheet. The duo combined for 42 points. Ford scored a season-high 25 points. His highest scoring effort before tonight was a 19 point game in the season opener against Wake Forest.

Michael Craion also had a good night from the field. He scored double-digit points for the tenth time in his last 11 games. The junior is now averaging over 13 points per game.

Tied at 29 to start the second half, ORU came out strong on offense. Ford ignited the crowd and his team with a monstrous dunk to stretch the Golden Eagles’ lead to 35-31.

ORU clung to a slim lead most of the game before stretching the lead to a 13 point margin on its final possession. IPFW never led in the game. The Mastodons got 18 points from Zach Plackemeier and 12 points apiece from Ben Botts and Deilvez Yearby in a losing effort.

ORU’s bench performed much better than it did against Oakland Thursday night. The Golden Eagles’ reserves only scored three points in that 67-64 loss. ORU’s bench scored 12 points against the Mastodons.

ORU head coach Scott Sutton picked up a technical foul seven minutes into the second half for arguing with referees about foul calls. Less than a minute later, Ford picked up a technical as well.

The Golden Eagles got a scare with just a few minutes to play when Morrison and John Peckinpaugh collided near midcourt. Morrison stayed on the ground for a bit and hobbled to his feet, favoring his left knee. The sophomore stayed in the game and scored on ORU’s next offensive possession.

Saturday night’s team looked much different from the one who struggled at times to score against Oakland in the second half. The Golden Grizzlies were able to stretch a two point halftime lead over ORU to 11. The Golden Eagles fought back to make it a one possession game late, but were never able to come back from that deficit.

The Golden Eagles will host cross-town rival Tulsa this Wednesday. The two teams have split the last eight meetings. Tulsa won last year’s meeting, 50-43.