Southern Utah rallied from a 21-point deficit to pull within
six but the rally came up short Saturday night as Oral Roberts hung to hand the
Thunderbirds a 68-53 Summit League loss.
Both
teams struggled in the early going but ORU was able to build a 30-14 halftime
lead, thanks largely to a 14-of-15 performance from the free throw line. SUU
shot just two free throws in the first half and the Golden Eagles wound up
shooting 31 for the game, hitting 24, while SUU shot just 12, knocking down seven.
SUU
battled back in the second half behind 19 points from Ryan Brimley, who hit
four 3-pointers and fueled a 21-6 T-Bird run that brought them back from a
45-24 deficit to within 51-45 with 5:23 to go.
Brimley
scored 13 points during the run, hitting three 3-pointers and a pair of layups.
After
Jake Nielson hit two free throws to cut the deficit to 51-45 the Thunderbirds
would get no closer, however, as the Golden Eagles scored the next four points,
and were able to hold off the Thunderbirds the rest of the way.
"We
played much better in the second half," SUU Coach Roger Reid said. "Ryan came
in and gave us a boost off the bench, he's the kind of shooter who can do that
for you. We did a good job taking care of the ball, we were able to get some
things going on the offensive end in the second half. We've been working to try
to find the right combinations, to find out who can help us, and we're getting
there.
"I
thought we had a good defensive effort as well tonight," Reid added. "We made
them work for shots and we defended their perimeter shooters well. They were
able to get to the free throw line a lot though, and that wound up really
hurting us, and of course, falling that far behind a good team on the road is
never good."
Brimley
led SUU with his 19 second-half points, while Matt Massey added 12. Matt Hodgson led the Thunderbirds with six rebounds.
Michael
Craion led ORU with 22 points while Kevin Ford had a double-double with 12
points and 13 rebounds.
SUU
dipped to 3-6 overall and 0-2 in conference play, while ORU improved to 5-4 and
2-0 in Summit League games.
-- SUU --
