Oral Roberts 79, Western Illinois 58

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Josh Atkinson scored a season-high 22 points, including 15 in the first half, to spark Oral Roberts past Western Illinois 79-58 on Thursday night. <br><br>Atkinson went 6-of-10 on 3-pointers

Friday, February 28th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Josh Atkinson scored a season-high 22 points, including 15 in the first half, to spark Oral Roberts past Western Illinois 79-58 on Thursday night.

Atkinson went 6-of-10 on 3-pointers and 8-of-14 overall from the field. Cameron Tragardh scored 14 points for the Golden Eagles (17-9, 8-5 Mid-Continent), who never trailed.

Luis Rivas paced the Leathernecks (7-19, 3-10 Mid-Continent) with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

After trailing 36-29 at halftime, Western Illinois cut the margin to 38-35 before ORU went on a 10-1 run to break the game open, 48-36.

Steve Mason followed with a 3-pointer for the Leathernecks, but an ensuing 14-6 run increased the Golden Eagles' advantage to 62-45 with 7:33 left.

ORU steadily pulled away after that, going on to snap a three-game losing streak.

Atkinson had four treys in the opening 8 1/2 minutes to help ORU take a 21-9 advantage. The Leathernecks used an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 23-20.

After Matt Robins' 3-pointer sliced ORU's lead to 30-28, 3-pointers by Luke Spencer-Gardner and Atkinson helped the Golden Eagles rebuild their lead to seven at the half.