ORU too much for Cardinals- TW (12/05/06)

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ORU too much for Cardinals

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

12/5/2006

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Defense, shooting come up big as Eagles dispose of Lamar.

You could hear a pin drop at the Mabee Center when Adam Liberty started shooting jump shots around 5 p.m. It was two hours before his Oral Roberts basketball team played Lamar on Monday night.

"I normally don't come out that early," the junior guard said. "But I've been missing shots, so I wanted to get up as many as I could before the game."

Liberty's extra work paid off. For junior Moses Ehambe, it was extra work and extra prayer.

Liberty made 4-of-5 from the field and Ehambe scored a season-high 13 points off the bench as the Eagles ripped the Texas visitors 88-63 before an announced crowd of 4,771.

ORU finally put together a good shooting night after struggling mightily and losing two out of four games since the upset of third-ranked Kansas. The Eagles hit 31-of-57 overall and 8-of-15 from 3-point range.

"All the praise be to God," said Ehambe, explaining how things could change so suddenly from Saturday night when the Eagles hit 19-of-54 against Akron.

"You work more when you've been struggling like we have," Ehambe said.

And pray more? "Definitely," he said.

Ehambe, who made only 2-of-17 from 3-point range in his first six games, made his first two Monday and finished 4-of-6 from behind the arc. His 13 points were one shy of his career high.

Senior forward Caleb Green scored a game-high 26 points, hitting 8-of-13 from the field and 10-of-10 from the foul line as the Eagles (4-3) broke a two-game losing streak.

Lamar of the Southland Conference fell to 3-5. The Cardinals, playing without 7-foot-1 center James Davis for two games, lost at Tulsa 78-64 on Friday night.

ORU also played better than it had recently on defense. The Eagles forced 23 turnovers, a season-high for opponents, including 17 in the first half when they bolted to 22-point lead and put the game on ice.

"When you shoot 8-of-15 from 3-point range and play the kind of defense we did in the first half and the first part of the second half, it makes things much more enjoyable. You're able to get everybody in the game. It's fun to watch," said Green, who became the ninth-leading scorer in Mid-Continent Conference history.

All 10 Eagles in uniform scored, including redshirt freshman Sylvester Spicer, who had the first seven points of his college career, hitting 2-of-3 from the field and 3-of-4 from the foul line.

"I thought our intensity was so much greater than what it has been the last few games," head coach Scott Sutton said. "We got out into the passing lanes and forced turnovers. We created offense with our defense. I really feel like our defense got our offense going."

ORU scored 22 first-half points off turnovers. Steals fueled a spurt that put the game out of reach almost before it started. The Eagles trailed only once, at 7-6, but scored the next seven points.

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