Oakland passes major test with road victory at Oral Roberts

TULSA, Okla. – Oakland passed a major road test Thursday evening at Oral Roberts.

Senior center Keith Benson recorded his league-leading 10^th double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, leading five players in double figures, as visiting Oakland rang up a 85-77 victory over Oral Roberts in a Summit League men’s basketball road game at the Mabee Center.

Senior forward Will Hudson tallied his third double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds for Oakland (9-8, 4-0), which is 30-1 in its last 31 league games and 33-2 including the conference tournaments the past two years.

“We scored 85 points without our point guard Larry Wright tonight, which is pretty good,” said Oakland coach Greg Kampe. “We tried to get the largest lead we could, which we did, but I was really proud of the way we came back after they took the lead and responded, pushing it back to eight points. We made our free throws down the stretch and that’s how you win the road.”

The Golden Grizzlies have now won 12 straight league regular season games and 29 straight league contests when leading after 20 minutes.

Sophomore Drew Valentine added 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting, junior Reggie Hamilton scored 12 points, going 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, and freshman Travis Bader had 11 points for the Golden Grizzlies.

Oral Roberts’ Dominique Morrison led all scorers with 31 points on 11-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three-point range, and Steven Roundtree tallied 21 points for the Golden Eagles.

The Golden Grizzlies made six of their first seven shots and jumped out to a 17-point lead, 24-7, close to eight minutes in to the game. The lead continued to be double digits for most of the first half, but the Golden Eagles took advantage of some OU turnovers as the lead was cut to single digits at the break, 44-36.

ORU came out on a 12-3 run to take its first lead of the game, 48-47, just three-and-a-half minutes into the second half. The Golden Grizzlies would outscore the Golden Eagles 21-17 to regain the lead over the next 10 minutes and led 69-64 with just under seven minutes left in the game.

The Golden Eagles had a chance to tie the game with just over four minutes left, but Morrison had his shot rejected by Benson and the Grizzlies got an easy transition layup on the other end by Valentine as the lead went back to four, 73-69, with 4:11 left in the contest. With OU up 73-71, Hamilton was fouled with 2:49 on the game clock and converted both free throws.

Morrison answered at the other end for ORU, but Hudson came up with a big offensive rebound and put back as the lead was again four, 77-73, with under two minutes remaining. After two missed free throws, Valentine iced the game with a big 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to give the Golden Grizzlies their second straight win inside the Mabee Center.

The Golden Grizzlies will have a week off before hosting IUPUI after the New Year on Jan. 6 inside the Athletics Center O’rena. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be regionally-televised on Fox Sports Detroit.

Tags: college men's basketball

Category: Oakland University