Oral Roberts Squeaks By Incarnate Word On The Road

A Shawn Glover jumper with 1.2 seconds to go proved the difference as the Oral Roberts men's basketball team hung on to beat UIW 79-77 in San Antonio, Texas, Saturday night.

ORU (10-8, 4-1) led by as many as 12 in the early going, but was in a tight battle for the majority of the second half.

Glover finished with 24 points, his 12th 20-point game of the season, to lead ORU. Bobby Word connected on six of his seven shots, including all five behind the arc en route to a 17-point effort. D.J. Jackson scored 14 points, including 10 in the first half, and had seven assists to match his career high.

UIW (14-3, 2-2) was led by Denzel Livingston's 26 points, while Anthony Horton added 18 on an 8-of-10 shooting night. Ian Markolf and Kyle Hittle each ended with 10 points.

The Cardinals held big advantages in rebounds (35-25) and points in the paint (32-16). ORU had more steals (8-3) and fewer turnovers (15-12) to aid its cause.

The Golden Eagles wasted no time getting the offense started on Saturday against UIW, hitting their first five shots of the game to open up a quick 14-5 lead on the Cardinals.

A pair of UIW runs, including spurts of 8-2 and 7-1 got the Cardinals back in the game after ORU had opened up a 12-point advantage in the first half.

Behind Livingston's 18 first-half points, the Cardinals came all the way back to tie the game at 39-39 before Drew Wilson scored the first half's final points on a layup to make it 41-39 at the break.

Less than three minutes into the second half, a 3-pointer by Hittle gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 46-44.

It would be a battle from there, and neither team would grab more than a six-point lead the rest of the way, with ORU leading 67-61 with 7:30 to play.

A 6-0 UIW run, including four points from the free throw line, tied the game for just the third time. It would not be the last as the score would be tied four more times in the final 5:27, including at 77-77 with 19 seconds left.

A Glover jumper with :51 to play gave ORU a 77-75 lead and Glover helped preserve the lead as he blocked a 3-point attempt by Sam Burmeister with :29 to play.

After a pair of Burmeister free throws tied the game again, it was Glover who took over, knocking down a jumper with 1.2 seconds on the clock. Glover finished the game scoring 10 of the last 12 ORU points.

ORU returns home for a pair of Southland Conference games, including 2012-13 regular season champion Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, January 23 at 7:30 p.m.