Oakland women fall in final Summit League visit to Oral Roberts, 62-53
TULSA, Okla. – This time Oakland couldn’t find the magic.
After beating then top-seeded Oral Roberts by 30 points in last year’s Summit League Tournament semifinals, Oakland fell prey to the Golden Eagles 62-53 Saturday night at the Mabee Center.
TheOU loss was the first for the Golden Grizzlies in 2012 and snaps a three-game win streak.
“We just didn’t execute our game plan as well in the second half,” said Oakland head coach Beckie Francis. “We came out strong, but need to put two good halves together. We will bounce back.”
Oakland(8-9, 4-4) led at the half, but a 19-5 run by Oral Roberts (12-7, 6-2) to start the second half turned the tide. The Golden Eagles pushed the lead to as many as 14 points with 6:34 to play. It was the first time that OU has lost this season after leading at the half.
The Golden Grizzlies continued to battle and Malika Glover hit two free throws to cap a 9-0 scoring run, which made it 56-51 with 2:09 to play. It was as close as OU got in the final five minutes, as the team shot 29.6 percent from the field in the second half.
Calhoun scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half and also finished with a team-high five assists. Bethany Watterworth added 11 points and Victoria Lipscomb added nine as OU shot 38.2 percent for the game. Brittany Carnago had a season-high 11 rebounds to help Oakland win the battle of the boards 39-33.
Kevi Luper scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to lead ORU. The leading scorer in The Summit League, Luper went over 2,000 points for her career. Christian Key came off the bench to score 12 points for ORU, which shot 42.4 percent for the game and was 6-for-10 from 3-point-range.
Oakland held a seven-point lead in the first half, but the score was tied before Watterworth hit a 3-pointer with 21.6 seconds left in the half. The basket gave OU a 31-28 halftime lead. Oakland shot 46.4 percent in the first half, while ORU shot 46.2 percent.
The Golden Grizzlies continue Summit League play on Monday, traveling to Southern Utah for a 9 p.m. ET tipoff at the Centrum Arena.
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Oakland County Cruisers
