Second-half ORU burst tops Cavs - Tulsa World (11-30-05)

[ORUTerry]

Second-half ORU burst tops Cavs

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

11/30/2005

Golden Eagles score 49 points in final 20 minutes to secure win.

A wiseguy might have said the Oral Roberts University basketball team seemed to have a cavalier attitude about Tuesday's game against the St. Gregory's Cavaliers.

The Golden Eagles led by 13 at halftime, but the lead probably should have been higher. And head coach Scott Sutton thought the Eagles' first-half intensity should have been much higher.

"I told them that it was disappointing and embarrasing how we were playing. You need to be ready to play, regardless of who you're playing," Sutton said.

Sutton must have lit the fuse, because the Eagles scorched the Cavaliers for 49 second-half points and rolled to a 90-52 win over the NAIA school from Shawnee.

"He motivated us to go out there and play hard, crash the boards and play with a lot of intensity. We were out there playing to the level of the competition in the first half," said freshman forward Marchello Vealey, who scored nine of his 11 points in the second half.

Caleb Green scored 23 points and Ken Tutt had 15 to pace five ORU players in double figures as the Eagles climbed over the .500 mark at 3-2.

Green's 9-for-9 shooting from the field was the best night of his career.

"(Sutton) was disappointed. Obviously, St. Gregory's came to play, but he told us we need to take a game like this and learn what it takes to play a team from a lower level," said center Mickey Michalec.

St. Gregory's (4-4) trailed 41-28 at halftime and made it 41-32 early in the second half, but ORU expoloded on a 35-8 romp that made it 76-40 on Green's dunk with 9:30 left.

ORU's second-half intensity never let up. With 1:28 left, Chris Riouse dived for a loose ball and shoveled it ahead to Eric Fowlkes, whose breakaway dunk gave the Eagles their largest lead at 90-49.

While not to make excuses, Sutton said the first-half letdown "was not that unexpected, coming off (Sunday's long trip home from Alaska) and playing an NAIA team. But you still need to play hard."

The Eagles shot over 50 percent for the first time this season -- way over. They shot 58.6 percent in the first half, 63 percent in the second half and finished at a blistering 60.7 (34-of-56).

Ernie Anderson Jr. and Patrick Jones, a pair of former Tulsa high school standouts from Cascia Hall and Bishop Kelley, led the Cavaliers with 19 and 15, respectively.

Sutton said the runaway win was a good opportunity to give the 6-foot-7 Vealey a chance to build some confidence by playing extended minutes. Vealy played a season-high 25 minutes, hitting 5-of-7 from the field and collecting three rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

"I thought he was terrific," Sutton said. "The bad part about playing a challenging schedule early is that we couldn't afford to let Marchello play through some mistakes. He's a freshman and he's going to make mistakes, but he's going to be a good player and he's going to be a big part of this team this year, and we hadn't had a situation where we could play him for extended minutes," Sutton said.

Now the Eagles can focus all their attention on Saturday's home game with arch-rival Tulsa.

[ORUTerry]

The freshman for St Gregory's (Ernie Anderson from Cacia Hall) is a talented player. He was a good perimeter shooter and had a quick step to the basket. He should be playing D-1 someplace....