Oral Roberts Comes Back From Double Digits To Down Oakland In Wild Game

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – It's not quite Summit League Tournament time yet, but it sure felt like it on Saturday at the Mabee Center.

Oral Roberts and Oakland put on a show in front of more than 9,000 fans, and in the end the home team came away with a thrilling 93-86 win to stay undefeated in conference play.

The Golden Eagles moved to 10-0 in Summit League play and 18-4, while the Golden Grizzlies fell to 11-11 overall (5-5).

As they have a couple of times during their current 11-game winning streak, the Golden Eagles actually found themselves down in the second half.

Oakland led by 10 points – its largest of the game - with just more than 12 minutes remaining in the game, but ORU was able to mount an impressive comeback and keep the momentum going, scoring nearly 40 points in the game's final 12 minutes.

Fans who love spectacular displays of offense surely felt right at home during this one.

Both teams came out hot and never really cooled off. ORU shot 56 percent from the field in the game. Oakland ironically shot even better at 57 percent despite the loss.

The Golden Eagles hit 10 of their 20 3-pointers, while Oakland one-upped them once again with 15-of-28 from 3-point range (54 percent).

The difference in the game was the turnovers. ORU turned the ball over eight times, but the Golden Grizzlies were only able to turn those eight occurrences into three points.

Meanwhile, Oakland turned the ball over 12 times and the Golden Eagles turned those into an incredibly-efficient 25 points.

Oral Roberts also outscored Oakland in the paint 37-25.

Several ORU players racked up some big stats in the game, including Dominique Morrison, who played all 40 minutes and scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

Guard Warren Niles, however, led Oral Roberts in scoring with a season-high 28 points while shooting 9-of-15. Seven of those nine makes came from beyond the arc.

Michael Craion and Roderick Pearson also registered double digits for the Golden Eagles, while Steven Roundtree collected eight rebounds to go with nine points.

Oakland guard Reggie Hamilton led all scorers in the game with 30.

Next up for the Golden Eagles in their quest for an undefeated Summit League run is South Dakota State. The road game for ORU will be on Thursday at 7:05 p.m.