ORU Escapes Western Illinois In Double Overtime

Oral Roberts won its eighth game in a row Thursday night with a come from behind performance to force overtime and eventually top Western Illinois 71-70.

In the final seven minutes of regulation ORU mounted a 9-0 run to force the first extra period.

In the second overtime, Dominique Morrison tied the game with 1:03 left to play. Morrison was then fouled with 1.4 seconds to go and made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second.

Western Illinois inbounded the ball, but turned it over to ORU with 0.9 seconds left and let the Golden Eagles inbound the ball and use the clock to seal the one point victory.

"I just told our guys, to win a league championship you are going to have some games like this that you don't play well but still get the win," said head coach Scott Sutton. "I thought they an excellent job and just gutted it out."

Oral Roberts who moves to 15-4, 7-0, after shooting a mere 30 percent early on in the game as neither team found much rhythm offensively in the first.

The Golden Eagles trailed most of the game and were down 28-23 at the half.

After the break, ORU brought out a zone defense and began to force turnovers and chip away at the Leatherneck lead.

The Golden Eagles got a big break in the game when Western Illinois missed two free throws towards the end of regulation that would have tied the game again. The Leathernecks netted a bucked that knotted the score once more, but then missed a layup at the buzzer which sent the game to its first overtime.

With the game tied at 60 in the first extra period, Morrison missed a three-pointer that would have won the game.

In the second overtime, the Golden Eagles found themselves down two with 1:30 left in the game.

ORU held the ball for the final shot and Morrison was fouled with eight seconds left. He hit the first free throw to put ORU up 71-70 and then intentionally missed the second. Western Illinois turned the ball over on the inbounds pass which sealed the one point win for ORU.

"I thought we were going to win in regulation but we had a mental breakdown… It was a really good basketball game and I thought our guys showed a lot of toughness tonight to get back in the game," said Sutton.

ORU shot a mere 41.8% from the field - including 16.7% from three-point range in Thursdays game that wasn't pretty, but was a win.

"We answered every basket especially in the second overtime I am really proud of our guys, it's a great win," added Sutton.

Morrison led the Golden Eagles with his seventh straight game of 20 plus points as he totaled 27 points six rebounds and two steals. He was helped by Steven Roundtree who tallied 12 points and eight rebounds.

Western Illinois is now 9-6 and 4-3 on the year. They were paced by Obi Emegano's 17 points and two steals.

ORU next travels to Indianapolis to face IUPUI Saturday, Jan. 14 at 6 p.m.