ORU Hosts Summit League Leaders Tonight

Originally Published: Jan 7, 2010 4:4 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Oral Roberts’ men’s basketball team enters Thursday’s conference showdown with Oakland in pretty good standing. The Golden Eagles host a tough Golden Grizzlies team that is unbeaten in conference so far, but ORU hopes home court can provide a true advantage.

“The home team protects the home court, and this is a place where we have played well so far this season,” said Golden Eagles’ head coach Scott Sutton. “We’re looking forward to the game tonight.”

Home or away, ORU knows it can play with anybody, having already notched a trio of high-profile upsets this season. The Golden Eagles topped Stanford on the road by two points in November, before beating Missouri and then-13th ranked New Mexico in December. Thursday’s opponent isn’t as nationally recognized as any of those programs, but still presents problems for Scott Sutton’s team.

“They’re preseason favorites,” said Sutton during the pregame shoot around. “You can’t afford to lose to a team that you hope to compete with for a conference championship the last week of February”.

Oral Roberts, already 3-1 in Summit League play, looks to stay hot against the Golden Grizzlies tonight. Tip-time is set for 7 p.m. at the Mabee Center.