Oral Roberts Unable to Overcome Oakland

Originally Published: Jan 7, 2010 8:36 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TULSA, Oklahoma – Kyron Stokes’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer nearly forced overtime, but it spun out of the basket and sealed an Oral Roberts 67-64 loss to Oakland Wednesday.

Oakland (10-7, 4-0) had a chance to put the game away moments before Stokes’ shot, but Larry Wright missed his second free throw to keep the Golden Eagles (8-8, 3-2) in the game.

Ledrick Eackles led the Golden Grizzlies as they tried to hold off a late push by ORU. Eackles scored seven of his 12 points in the final two minutes of the game.

Oakland had pulled away earlier in the second half and led by as much as 11 points. But the Golden Grizzlies failed to put ORU away, and the Golden Eagles went on a 9-3 run to pull back within striking distance. The teams remained close for the rest of the game, but ORU never held a lead in the second half.

ORU’s Dominique Morrison led all scorers with 19 points, and all five of the Golden Eagles’ starters scored in double digits. However, they got only three points from their bench, all provided by Damen Bell-Holter. The bench did not score any points in the second half.

Johnathan Jones led Oakland with 16 points, while Derick Nelson scored 14 and Keith Benson added 13. The Golden Grizzlies got a total of 20 points from their bench, led by Eackles’ 12.