ORU Records First Ever Win Over Texas Tech

For the first time in school history, and in front of the largest crowd of season, the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders Thursday night by a score of 72-56.

It was a slow start for ORU who went the first five minutes of the game without a field goal, but the Golden Eagles got back on track and never relinquished the lead the rest of the game.

Texas Tech tallied four early turnovers and the Golden Eagles took their first lead of the game on a three pointer by Warren Niles with 14 minutes left in the first.

That three would jumpstart a 19-2 run by ORU who went up 30-13 on the Red Raiders.

At the break, Oral Roberts led 37-20 thanks to 12 points in the paint and 10 early points from Dominique Morrison as well as nine points by Damen Bell-Holter.

But it wasn't just the positive performance from Oral Roberts, perhaps the most shocking stats were Texas Tech's 16 turnovers and the fact that they only took 17 shots in the first half of play.

In the second, Tech would narrow the lead to eight points thanks to a big second half by Jordan Tolbert who finished with 21 points.

ORU got into foul trouble late in the game, as Dominique Morrison, Steven Roundtree and Michael Craion all had four fouls late in the game, but they managed it well and no one fouled out.

Even though Tolbert and the Red Raiders tried to make a comeback, they were no match for ORU who shot a season-best 47.4 percent from three-point range. The Golden Eagles finished at 44 percent shooting from the floor.

"I thought we really came out, besides the first couple of minutes, and we really played well. We defended and followed the scout report to perfection on the defensive end and forced a lot of turnovers and this team is so much better when they are hitting shots like they did tonight," said ORU head coach Scott Sutton.

Dominique Morrison led the scoring with 26 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Warren Niles added 16 points with 12 of those points coming off three-pointers.

Oral Roberts moves to 9-4 on the season and a total of 8,064 fans packed the Mabee Center to cheer on the Golden Eagles—the largest crowd to date this year.

"The crowd was awesome," said Sutton. "I really appreciate the true ORU fans for showing up like they do every night but also the other Tulsa fans who came out to watch a great game."

Jordan Tolbert scored 21 points for the Raiders, who fell to 5-5 this season.

"Tolbert, in the second half dominated the game, but we built a big enough cushion to sustain their rally," added Sutton. "Anytime you beat a big 12 team by 16 points it's a great win."

Oral Roberts takes a break for the Christmas holiday, but returns to action Dec. 28 in Kansas City against UMKC at 7:05 p.m.