ORU Press Release on Top 25 Votes & Marchello Vealy

[ORUTerry]

ORU Receives Votes in Both Top 25 Polls;

Vealy Named Mid-Con Player of the Week

TULSA--On the heels of last week?s win at No. 3 Kansas, Oral Roberts University received votes in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 polls, which were released on Monday.

The Golden Eagles (1-1), who defeated the Jayhawks 78-71 on Nov. 15 at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, received seven votes in the coaches? poll and three votes in the AP poll. This is the first time ORU has received votes in any regular-season Top 25 poll since receiving a single vote on Dec. 9, 2002.

The Golden Eagles also received votes in the 2005-06 preseason Associated Press Top 25. ORU was last ranked when they finished the 1973-74 season ranked 18th by the AP.

In other ORU basketball news, sophomore forward Marchello Vealy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) has been named Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced on Monday.

Vealy, a 6-foot-7 forward, earns his first-ever honor after scoring a career-high 22 points in ORU?s win at Kansas. Vealy was 7-of-10 from the field, including 7-of-8 from 3-point range, and grabbed six rebounds.

Vealy made his first seven 3-point attempts against the Jayhawks, going 5-for-5 in the first half to help ORU build a 39-34 halftime lead. He entered Wednesday?s game 1-for-13 in his career on long-range shots.

The Golden Eagles return to action when they host Louisiana-Lafayette in the 2006-07 home opener, 7:05 p.m., Tuesday at Mabee Center.