Oral Roberts Women Fall On The Road Once Again

Oral Roberts University continued to struggle away from home on Thursday night as they fell to Nicholls State, 71-60, at Stopher Gym. The loss drops ORU to 5-13 overall and 4-4 in Southland Conference play.

The Golden Eagles are now 0-10 on the road this season.

Kaylan Mayberry led the Golden Eagles with 17 points, her highest scoring output since the calendar turned to 2014. But she fouled out of the game with 5:22 left, and ORU could not produce a consistent secondary scorer.

Christian Key, who entered the day averaging 14.4 points per game for the season and 20.3 points per game over the last four contests, struggled to find good looks. The senior scored just seven points on 2-for-4 shooting, with no points after halftime.

Bernadett Balla led the Golden Eagles with eight rebounds, while Key dished four assists.

Nicholls (10-9, 5-3 SLC) put four players in double-figures, led by Taylor Morrison with 15 points and nine rebounds. Jenny Nash added 14, Emani White scored 12 and KK Babin had 11 points to go with five assists.

The home team shot 38.3 percent (23-for-60 ) on the evening, while ORU was at 37.5 percent (21-for-56).

ORU is now 1-2 all-time against Nicholls and 0-2 at Stopher Gym.

Nicholls came out of the gates in a half court trap that wreaked havoc on the Golden Eagles. White knocked down a three-pointer at the 16:13 mark of the 1st half and the home team raced out to a 12-2 lead.

The Colonels were red hot from downtown to start the game, and their lead continued to grow. Nicholls hit four of their first five three-pointers, including a Babin 3-pointer that made the score 26-11 with 11:07 left in the period.

ORU worked the deficit down to six before Nicholls again pushed it to double-digits. The Colonels held a 43-33 edge at the halftime break.

Nicholls shot 44.1 percent (15-for-34) from the floor in the 1st half and hit 6-for-8 (75.0 percent) three-pointers. ORU shot 37.0 percent (10-for-27) in the opening period. Nash and Mayberry led their respective teams with 14 points apiece.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Mayberry and Alexus Wilson cut the Nicholls advantage to 45-41 with 17:54 left in the game, but the lead was back to double-digits less than four minutes later.

ORU trailed, 56-46, with 12:46 left in the game before mounting a mini-rally. Two straight Tysia Manuel baskets and a Noora Jaervikangas three-ball cut the score to 58-53 with 10:14 remaining.

But that was as close as the Golden Eagles would get. ORU made just two field goals in the game's final 7:58 and fell to .500 in Southland play.

ORU completes their Southland road trip on Saturday against McNeese State. Game time in Lake Charles, La. is booked for 1 p.m.