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Eagles advance to semis - Tulsa World (3-5-2007)


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Eagles advance to semis

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by LYNN JACOBSEN World Sports Writer

3/5/2007

It's tough to beat a team three times -- just ask members of the Oral Roberts women's basketball team.

But with the game in doubt, the Golden Eagles bucked up and eked out a 52-44 victory over the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

A Union Multipurpose Activity Center crowd of 1,961 saw ORU blow a nine-point lead, only to fight back to advance to the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament semifinals for the sixth time overall and third time in six years.

"That's us, nothing easy," ORU coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. "But we play with a lot of character."

ORU offered a balanced scoring attack that included 14 points from Elisha Turek, 12 from Janae Voelker, 11 from Jenny Hardin and 10 from Rachel Watman.

"That was the one positive offensively for us, " Finkbeiner added.

Third-seed ORU (20-10) will face second-seed Valparaiso (20-10) at 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

The other semifinal pits top-seed Oakland (18-11) against fourth-seed IUPUI (14-15) at 12 p.m.

The Golden Eagles struggled out of the tip and didn't really recover until about 10 minutes into the contest.

UMKC (10-20) was the aggressor from the opening tip and took a 16-10 lead seven minutes into the contest.

Sarah Davidson keyed ORU's 9-2 run without scoring a point.

The senior guard got a mid-court steal then fed Katie Langford, who buried her only 3-pointer of the game to pull ORU to within 16-14.

From there, Watman scored a 15-footer followed by back-to-back baskets from Turek, who went over 2,000 career points Sunday.

Tobey Beer, a former Sapulpa standout, answered with consecutive scores for the Kangaroos. She finished with six points overall.

The Golden Eagles closed out the half on a 10-3 run for a 30-25 halftime cushion.

They opened strong in the second half to pull away to a 36-27 lead and just when it looked as though they would blow out UMKC, Chazny Morris came to the rescue.

The freshman guard scored 10 consecutive points, including two long-range bombs, to give the Kangaroos the lead 39-38. Morris led all scorers with 21 points.

"My concern wasn't so much that we were giving up points to the hot scorer but that we weren't scoring on the other end," Finkbeiner said.

That's when the Golden Eagles' conditioning came into play.

"It showed at the end of each half," Finkbeiner said. "It was difference."

ORU limited UMKC's leading scorer Alysa Klein, a 6-foot-3 center who averaged 12.1 points, to four on Sunday.

The junior got into foul trouble early in the game which limited her effectiveness.

The Golden Eagles must now prepare for Valparaiso, a team they lost to twice during the regular season.

"Valpo is a good team," Turek said. "They are well-coached. You have to beat them, because they will show up. A little revenge would be nice."

Turek said playing three games in three days is nothing new to the Golden Eagles.

"I don't know anything else," she said. "We have never played differently. We've had three hard practices in a row. It's nothing different."

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Lynn Jacobsen 581-8461

lynn.jacobsen@tulsaworld.com

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