Oral Roberts Drops Coyotes Handily, Extends Streak To Four

NewsOn6.com

VERMILLION, South Dakota -- The Golden Eagles extended their win streak to four games, notching their third Summit League victory, thanks to a big first-half lead, knocking off the South Dakota Coyotes 79-67.

Oral Roberts scored the game's first five points, and expanded that to a 15-4 advantage, helped along by a pair of three-pointers from Dominique Morrison and Jake Lliteras, less than seven minutes into the game.

Five minutes later, the Golden Eagles moved to make it a deep-enough hole to keep the Coyotes from climbing out. Oral Roberts held a 21-16 advantage with eight minutes left in the first half, the Golden Eagles went on a 15-3 run spanning the next four minutes, including seven from Morrison and six from Steven Roundtree, to take a 36-19 advantage with four minutes left before the half.

That score held for the next four minutes and a buzzer-beating three from Warren Niles put ORU ahead 44-30 heading into the locker room.

The second half was essentially more of the same from Oral Roberts, save for a quick run from the Coyotes, sparked by a pair of back-to-back from behind the arc to cut the advantage to 65-61 witn 6:46 left to play. However, the Golden Eagles cracked off six straight to push the lead back to double-digits.

Morrison finished with a game-high 27 points, including 15 from behind-the-arc, while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists in the win. Both Roundtree and Niles contributed 16 points each, Niles also adding five rebounds and four assists in the process.

Allen Saint-Gelais set the high-water mark for the Coyotes, turning in 20 points, with Louie Krogman adding in 14 points and six boards.

The Golden Eagles are out of action until 2012, taking on Oakland on the road at 6 p.m. Jan. 3.