Glover, Niles Lead Oral Roberts Past Pesky Nicholls State

Oral Roberts used a big second half to take down Nicholls State 90-78 Thursday night in Tulsa.

After the game was tied at 37-37 at halftime, ORU outscored the Colonels 53-41 in the second to pull away for the win. Shawn Glover and Warren Niles each had huge nights for the Golden Eagles, combining for 49 points and 14 rebounds. Glover scored 25 and grabbed nine boards while Niles dropped 24 and five.

ORU needed those big performances to overcome Fred Hunter's scoring explosion for Nicholls. Hunter scored 33 points on 11-15 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. Hunter hit 11 free throws but did not hit a 3-pointer, shooting 0-1 from downtown. Dantrell Thomas scored 12 points while Amin Torres added 17 points in 31 minutes off the Colonels' bench.

Damen Bell-Holter and Cory Billbury also scored double-digits for the Eagles, finishing with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

ORU outrebounded Nicholls 29-19 and shot an impressive 62.3 percent from the floor and 6-11 (54.5 percent) from 3-point range.

The win improves ORU to 13-8 overall and 8-1 in the Southland Conference. Nicholls State falls to 6-13 and 5-4 in conference-play.

Next up for ORU is a home game with Southeastern Louisiana Saturday at 7:30 p.m.