Golden Eagles Rattle Off Fourth Straight Win

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – Oral Roberts' recent run of wins has been the definition of bouncing back.

After a pair of losses to start the year, including a heartbreaker against UTSA, ORU has won four straight, the most recent a 73-65 win against Florida International on Tuesday.

The Golden Eagles' one-point loss on Nov. 15 was the first round of the NIT Season Tip-off, and kept them from having any chance at visiting Madison Square Garden.

But that didn't stop them from plowing through the consolation bracket, which they hosted at the Mabee Center.

ORU's win against FIU was its fourth-straight and helped the Golden Eagles start the season 4-2 for the first time since 2007-08.

Dominique Morrison set several marks for ORU, appearing in his 100th game and also moving into eighth place on the ORU career scoring list. He scored 13 points on the night to pass Haywood Workman (1986-89).

Morrison now has 1,516 career points.

Michael Craion led the offense for Oral Roberts with 19 points and added eight boards.

Oral Roberts started 6-of-12 from 3-point range to jump out to a 30-17 lead.

In the second half, however, FIU clawed the lead all the way back down to one at 42-41.

But redshirt freshman Jake Lliteras had a hot hand for the Golden Eagles, draining all four of his 3-point attempts to help ORU pull away.

Golden Eagles coach Scott Sutton said Lliteras works extremely hard on his shot and it paid off in the game.

"He hit some big shots," Sutton said. "I think he hit a couple in the first half that extended our lead and those two in the second half were probably the biggest of the game. They had all the momentum and he stepped up and hit back-to-back shots for us."

ORU has a few days off for Thanksgiving break before returning to action at home against Missouri State on Nov. 30. Tipoff for that game is set for 7:05 p.m.