Buzzer-Beater Lifts Oral Roberts Past IUPUI

After Oral Roberts missed a pair of shots to send the game to overtime, Roderick Pearson converted on a layup as time expired in the first overtime period to lift the Golden Eagles to a 76-74 win over IUPUI Thursday.

With 23 seconds left to play, Alex Young went up for a layup and was fouled, hitting on free throw to tie the game 65-65. On the Golden Eagles' ensuing possession, Dominique Morrison missed on a jumper and Warren Niles missed on the put-back, sending the game to overtime.

The Golden Eagles opened up the extra period quickly, with back-to-back layups from Steven Roundtree, followed by a pair of free throws from Dominique Morrison to take a 71-65 advantage halfway through overtime.

IUPUI answered with a 6-1 run over the next minute, cutting the lead to just one point with a minute left to play. Roundtree responded with two free throws to push the lead to 74-71; however Christian Siakam hit a layup to cut the lead to one point with just 40 seconds to play.

Eighteen seconds later, Ian Chiles came up with a steal and Dominique Morrison was forced to foul. Chiles mad the first, but missed the second and Damen Bell-Holter grabbed the board and called a time out. Coming out of the time out, Pearson hit on the layup as time expired to give the Golden Eagles the win.

Morrison set the pace for Oral Roberts, scoring 23 points, while Michael Craion added 12 points and six rebounds in the win.

Young finished with a game-high 34 points and six rebounds, with both Sikam and Stephen Thomas contributing 11 points each.

The win puts the Golden Eagles at 14-1 in conference play with just three games remaining, comfortably ahead of South Dakota State, who is 11-3 after losing to South Dakota. ORU will try to make it three consecutive at 7:05 p.m. Saturday against Western Illinois.