ORU Ends Season With Tough Loss To Nevada In NIT Opener

Oral Roberts ended the season and its 23-game home winning streak with a tough loss to Nevada in the first round of the NIT Wednesday night in Tulsa.

The Golden Eagles failed to score from the field in the final 4:17 of the game as the Wolf Pack outscored ORU 11-5 in the final minutes of play to take the 68-59 win and advance to the second round.

I hated going out like that," said ORU Head Coach Scott Sutton. "We didn't play well. We got beat by a very good team, that's an NCAA tournament team. They certainly deserved to be in that tournament, but if you expect to beat a team like that you can't afford to play poorly in areas which we did. We didn't rebound at all, we gave up 19 second-chance points and that was a key going in."

Dominique Morrison and Roderick Pearson paced ORU each scoring 13 points while three other player also tallied double figures, but Nevada's commanding advantage in rebounds (45-29) was a big key to controlling the game down the stretch.

ORU led 13-5 in the early minutes of the game and held a one point, 30-29 advantage at halftime.

The Wolf Pack came alive out of the break and took the lead in the first five minutes of the second half and never looked back.

With 5:14 left to play, a dunk by Nevada's Olek Czyz ignited an 8-0 run to finish the game and net the win for the Wolf Pack.

Nevada held a 45-29 rebounding edge, converting 15 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points while they Nevada Shot 43 percent for the game, 54.5 percent (6-11) from 3-point range and hit 12 of 15 free throws. ORU hit just 24-60 (40 percent) of its shots and held a 5-15 mark from 3-point range.

The win for Nevada moves them to 27-6 on the season, marking a new record for the most wins in school history. The Wolf Pack was led by Dario Hunt who recorded 18 points while Deonte Burton added 17.

Oral Roberts, the regular-season Summit League champion finishes the season at 27-7 on the year. The first round loss snaps a 23-game home winning streak that goes back to 1975.

Nevada advances to face Bucknell in the second round.