Late Game Run Boosts ORU Over South Dakota

Oral Roberts is now 2-0 in Summit League play after a late game run boosted the Golden Hurricane over the University of South Dakota 66-53 Thursday night.

ORU was down one point with 11:30 to play when the Golden Eagles sparked a 26-12 run to down the Coyotes.

Kevi Luper and Jordan Pyle combines to score 41 of ORU's points in the game. Luper finished with 25 points, five rebounds and four steals while Pyle tallied a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Oral Roberts got out to a quick start and led 9-3 at the first media timeout as the Coyotes couldn't handle the Golden Eagles's full court pressure.

USD responded, hitting back-to-back three pointers to take the lead late in the half. Alexis Yackley hit the second long ball for the Coyotes to give them a 23-20 lead with five minutes left in the first.

South Dakota held a one-point 28-27 lead at halftime over ORU.

Oral Roberts once again got a quick start to begin the second half as they scored ten of the first 11 points.

The home team rallied and took the lead back off a three-point bucket by Yackley to make it 41-40.

The turning point for ORU came when Dominique Allen layed-in a basket to make it 42-41 and the Golden Eagles dominated the rest of the game.

Pyle came alive down the stretch, including a clutch second-chance basket to give the Golden Eagles a 56-45 lead with just 2:25 left. That run sealed the victory for ORU.

As a team, ORU shot an even 50.0%, while the home team shot at just a 36.0% clip. USD struggled from behind the arc, where they missed 22 of 31 attempts.

Bernadett Balla totaled eight points for ORU and Dominique Allen tallied seven points, all in the second half.

USD (8-3, 1-2 Summit League) was led by Alexis Yackely, who scored 16 points.

Oral Roberts will face UMKC on Dec. 31 at 2 p.m.