Golden Eagles battle back to stop Cougars - TW (1-3-06)

[ORUTerry]

Golden Eagles battle back to stop Cougars

By Staff Reports

1/3/2006

ORU's Caleb Green scores 25 points and grabs his 700th board.

CHICAGO -- Chicago State (1-12) may have one of the worst records in major-college basketball, but Oral Roberts University coach Scott Sutton was happy to get out of town with a win Monday night.

The Golden Eagles opened defense of their Mid-Continent Conference title by beating the Cougars 74-65 before about 150 spectators in CSU's Jacoby Dickens Center.

Caleb Green scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and snagged his 700th career rebound, the eighth ORU player to do so.

ORU (6-7), playing its sixth straight road game, broke a four-game losing streak. Chicago State, playing its first home game, lost its 10th straight.

"This is not a terrible team. Their schedule is one of the toughest in America," Sutton said.

CSU's record includes losses to Louisville, Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Bradley.

"They'll beat a lot of people in here. It's a tough place to play, as far as getting up to play in this gym. We've taken good teams in here and come out with losses. Under the circumstances, I'm very pleased," Sutton said.

Ken Tutt chipped in 15 points, hitting 3-of-3 on treys. Jonathan Bluitt scored nine of his 10 points in the second half. Eric Fowlkes, with friends and relatives watching from his hometown of Milwaukee, scored nine.

Yemi Ogunoye had a game-high nine rebounds and made one of the game's biggest plays, a rebound basket and foul shot to make it 48-42 with 10:02 left. It came after Chicago State had trimmed a seven-point deficit to three. The Cougars never got closer than five after that.

Ken Tutt's 3-pointer broke a 28-28 halftime tie and the Eagles led the final 20 minutes.

Royce Parran led CSU with 19 points.

[ORUIsbig]

150 fans? many of those are Erics family? Thats embarrising.