Billbury's Double-Double Leads ORU Past UCA

Korey Billbury had the third double-double of his career, leading the Oral Roberts men's basketball team to a 63-50 victory over Central Arkansas on Saturday night at the Farris Center. The 50 points given up were the fewest since holding Lamar to 50 on March 2, 2013.

In addition to his game-high 24 points, Billbury led everyone with 13 rebounds including seven offensive boards. Shawn Glover added 18 points and nine rebounds for ORU. D.J. Jackson finished the game one off his career high with six assists in just 15 minutes of action.

As a team, ORU (14-13, 8-6) shot 44 percent and hit 3-11 from 3-point range, with all three coming from a 3-4 effort by Adrion Webber.

UCA (6-19, 3-11) got 16 points from LaQuentin Miles and 11 from DeShone McClure, shooting 30 percent from the field as a team.

Much like the first meeting, ORU dominated the boards, holding a 48-30 rebounding advantage.

"First half I didn't think we had all that much energy, but the second half I thought we played hard, I thought we played with energy and we got things going," said Coach Scott Sutton. "I'm pleased with our overall effort, and it is always good to win on the road."

Up 16-14 12 minutes into the game, ORU scored six straight points to take a 22-14 lead, their largest of the half. The spurt included jumpers by Jabbar Singleton, Billbury and Glover.

UCA answered with the next with the next nine points to retake the lead at 23-22 after a Miles layup at the 3:22 mark of the half. It was the first lead for the Bears since it was 10-8.

A pair of Glover free throws stopped the UCA run and a Glover dunk, along with two Billbury free throws ended the half for ORU, putting the Golden Eagles up 28-25 at the break.

Daouda Berete hit a free throw to start the scoring in the second half but ORU scored the next 10 to break the game open. Including the three straight before halftime, ORU out-scored UCA 13-1 opening up a 12-point lead (38-26) just more than five minutes into the second half.

Another triple by Webber got the Golden Eagles going again, it was his third trey in as many attempts for Webber and kept ORU comfortably in front.

ORU was able to cruise the rest of the way, leading by as many as 20 with 25 seconds to play.

ORU will return to Tulsa for the final home series of the year, beginning with a 7:30 p.m. contest against Lamar on Thursday, Feb. 27. The game will be ORU's Turn Tulsa Pink night, with players wearing pink jerseys. ORU will also hold a silent auction during the game with the proceeds benefiting cancer research.