ORU Women Lose Heartbreaker to ND State

Originally Published: Jan 2, 2010 6:2 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

FARGO, North Dakota -- Oral Roberts froze down the stretch in Fargo and fell 68-66 to North Dakota State. ORU did not score over the final 2:20 of the contest.

Jaci Bigham led the Golden Eagles with 20 points, and Kevi Luper tallied 13 points in her first game back from injury. Jordan Pyle chipped in 12.

Trailing by four at halftime, ORU jumped out of the gate with an 11-0 run to take a seven-point lead.

The Bison answered with a 13-0 run of their own, though, and retook the lead.

After several more runs by each team, Bigham hit a lay-up to give ORU a one-point lead with under three minutes remaining. That would be all for ORU, though.

NDSU's Hannah Linz sank two free-throws to retake the lead with 52.1 seconds remaining, and Katie Birkel went one-of-two from the charity stripe to put the Bison up by two with 10.4 seconds left. The Golden Eagles had the final possession but failed to get a shot off.

The Golden Eagles fall to 8-6 overall and 2-1 in Summit League play. The Bison improved to 8-5 on the season and 3-0 in conference action.