Oral Roberts Pulls Off Dramatic Finish against UMKC

A full-length pass into a buzzer beating shot helped ORU to an overtime win.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:09 pm

By: News On 6

Oral Roberts Pulls Off Dramatic Finish against UMKC

Originally Published: Jan 15, 2011 10:25 PM CDT

Grant Belcher
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Okla. – Things were looking bad at more than one point Saturday night for Oral Roberts.

But in a stunning comeback, the Golden Eagles erased a 13-point deficit to take a 69-63 victory in overtime against UMKC.

After clawing all the way back into the game, the ending looked bleak for ORU as the Kangaroos’ Jay Couisnard scored with less than a second left to put UMKC up 56-54.

But ORU’s Rod Pearson launched a length-of-the-court pass, which teammate Damen Bell-Holter pulled in and laid off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

The momentum carried over to the extra period for the Golden Eagles, who outscored the Kangaroos 13-7 in overtime.

A 3-pointer from ORU’s Warren Niles gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game (61-58) as part of an 11-0 run in overtime.

Niles had 18 points to lead the Golden Eagles. Steven Roundtree added 17 and Dominique Morrison had 15.

ORU pulled off the victory despite shooting just 38 percent from the floor and 25 percent from beyond the arc.

The Golden Eagles will resume play on Jan. 22nd at home against Centenary at 7:05 p.m.